Tonye Tony Oki is an attorney from Nigeria. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) in 2003 from the Ambrose Alli University, Edo State – Nigeria. He graduated with honors, ranked amongst the top 5% of his class. He continued his legal education at the Nigerian Law School where he successfully obtained his Barrister-at-Law (BL.) license and was enlisted as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in September 2004. In November 2004, he was professionally certified by the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators as a Chartered Mediator and Conciliator (ChMC) and in March of 2005, he became professionally certified as an Arbitrator by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK). Barrister Tonye Oki is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and is professionally certified in Corporate Governance and Corporate Secretarial Practice by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK. He obtained his Master of Laws (LLM) in Environment and Natural Resources Law & Policy in 2006 from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law with scholastic excellence, and obtained a specialization in Energy Law and Policy.

Barrister Oki began his career in the field of human rights in 1997 when he joined the Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Chapter of the Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR). In 1999, he was appointed Chairman of the CDHR AAU. In that capacity he was profoundly involved in the protection of the rights of the child, community dispute resolution, environmental protection and in the representation and counseling of indigent clients in the community. He received several awards and accolades from community leaders and professional organizations for his work at the CDHR. He was also vigorously involved in the campaign against HIV/AIDS as a UNICEF peer educator where he made tremendous impact in the Local Government Area of Karu, Nassarawa State, Nigeria, and in February 2004, he earned UNICEF’s recognition for his outstanding performance in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Barrister Oki started his legal practice in environment and natural resources law in 2004 focusing heavily on environmental degradation and toxic torts. In 2006, he worked as a researcher for the Natural Resources Weblinks where he was responsible for researching business transactions, environmental laws, mineral laws, and petroleum laws of all African states for their compilation into a central database. Barrister Oki has done wide spread legal research, natural resources negotiations and transactions, and corporate body/community dispute resolution. He has written and edited a number of law related articles and publications and has presented several papers to professional bodies, organizations and graduate students. He currently serves as consultant to several corporations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Africa on matters of international transactions in natural resources, and on various regulatory regimes of countries in Africa.

Barrister Tonye Oki is an Adjunct Professor in the Environment and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. He teaches the graduate level course of Negotiation of Natural Resources Agreements.