A Nigerian lawyer, Yusuf Temilola Nurudeen, has received the International Bar Association (IBA) Pro Bono Award in recognition of his commitment to expanding access to justice for indigent and vulnerable people.

Nurudeen received the award on Thursday, October 8, 2026, during the IBA’s annual awards breakfast in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event also saw Charmaine Yao receive the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, while Zar Li Aye was honoured for outstanding contribution by a legal practitioner to human rights.

The award was presented by Babatunde Ajibade, SAN, chair of the IBA Section on Public and Professional Interest (SPPI) for 2025–2026, alongside other executives of the section. The SPPI promotes the exchange of information and views on public and professional interest issues affecting the legal profession worldwide.

Nurudeen dedicated the recognition to 141 volunteer lawyers working across 18 states in Nigeria through the Foundation for Public Interest Law and Development, also known as The Pro Bono Centre, who provide legal assistance to people unable to afford representation.

In his acceptance speech, he described access to justice as a deeply personal cause, tracing his commitment to his humble beginnings in Ikotun, Lagos, where he grew up and became the first lawyer in his family.

He said the possibility that his father could have suffered wrongful incarceration, as in the cases of two Nigerians he referenced, might have deprived him of the opportunity to pursue his own ambitions.

“If my father had been wrongfully arrested and incarcerated for thirteen years, like Igba Isaac, or eight years, like Pa Idowu Fashola, my dreams might have been cut short,” he said.

Nurudeen explained that such an experience could have deprived his father of his freedom and him of the opportunity to become a lawyer.

His reflection underscored the barriers confronting people who cannot afford legal services, particularly those whose liberty, family relationships, property or livelihoods depend on access to legal representation.

He identified among those affected people who remain in detention because they cannot afford lawyers, women trapped in abusive marriages, children whose maintenance rights remain unenforced and families who lose their homes or livelihoods because the cost of pursuing justice is beyond their means.

For Nurudeen, the responsibility of the legal profession extends beyond representing clients who can pay for its services. He argued that the law must remain accessible regardless of people’s financial circumstances and that poverty should not determine whether an individual can defend their rights.

“Leaving these victims of our society’s inherent inequality helpless cannot be the promise of the legal profession,” he said.

“Our undertaking must be to ensure the law remains an instrument of justice, not a privilege reserved for wealth, power, or influence.”

Guided by that conviction, Nurudeen said he had led a team of volunteer lawyers providing legal assistance to indigent and vulnerable people who might otherwise remain unheard and without adequate defence.

He said the award belonged not to him alone but also to the 141 volunteers who give their time, professional knowledge and resources without expecting financial reward.

Their work, he noted, reflects the role of pro bono legal services in bridging the gap between the right to seek justice and the financial capacity to pursue it.

Nurudeen said the award should not be regarded as a declaration that their work was complete, but as an encouragement to extend their reach and deepen their commitment.

“I accept this award not as a declaration that our work is complete, but as a challenge to do more,” he said.

“It renews my commitment to resisting the commodification of justice and ensuring that poverty does not become a sentence of helplessness.”

He described pro bono service not merely as charity, but as a professional responsibility and a fundamental pillar of justice.

His recognition shows the continuing importance of access to legal representation for people whose circumstances prevent them from engaging lawyers on a commercial basis. For those facing detention, domestic abuse, disputes over family maintenance or the loss of property, the ability to obtain legal assistance can determine whether their grievances are heard and their rights effectively defended.

For Nurudeen, the task extends beyond providing assistance in individual cases. It is also about sustaining a legal culture in which the protection of rights does not depend solely on a person’s ability to pay.

He said the recognition had strengthened his resolve to work towards a society where no one is too poor to be defended, too powerless to be heard or too marginalised to be protected.

The award, he maintained, was a reminder of the work still required to make that aspiration a reality.