2015 EiDA Nominee – Funke Abimbola

Funke is a practising solicitor now leading the UK & Ireland legal team of Roche, the world’s largest biotech company. She is currently the most senior black lawyer working in the UK pharmaceutical industry. Funke had to overcome significant obstacles in pursuing and progressing her legal career to this stage and her passion for becoming a business lawyer drove her to cold-call the corporate department heads at the top 100 UK law firms with a “sales pitch” confirming what she could offer. Funke has embraced diversity in both her widely varied in-house activity and in her equally challenging voluntary work, making it her personal mission to promote diversity within the legal profession. Funke mentors a number of female solicitors and is a professional Ambassador for Aspiring Solicitors, an organisation that supports and promotes diversity within the legal profession. She is also an active member of the Black Solicitors’ Network, the Association of Women Solicitors and the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society.

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