Emmanuel Onyeabor is a tax and employment lawyer, and a chartered tax practitioner, licensed in Nigeria. He holds memberships of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), and the Employment and Labour Lawyers Association of Nigeria (ELLAN). He is also a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree Candidate in Taxation and Finance at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Canada, where he conducts his doctoral research both as a Killam Scholar and as a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholar. His doctoral research focuses on crafting an effective policy framework for decentralized financial regulation and crypto assets taxation in Canada. Emmanuel holds a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in International Tax Law and Policy from Dalhousie University, where his LLM thesis explored how developing and emerging economies like Nigeria can better cooperate with developed countries like Canada and the United States in designing effective transnational digital tax measures for the promotion of efficiency in digital cross-border trade. Emmanuel received both the George Caines Graduate Scholarship award and the Sir James Dunn Graduate Scholarship in Law award, including a Dalhousie University – Faculty of Graduate Studies scholarship allocation, for his LLM program at Dalhousie. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nigeria, where his LLB thesis focused on taxation of religious entities in Nigeria.

Emmanuel was President of the Dalhousie Law Graduate Society (DLGS) during his LLM program at Dalhousie, where he represented the academic, professional, and social interests of graduate law students at the Schulich School of Law. He was also Chief Judge of the Students’ Union Government during his LLB program at the University of Nigeria. He further served as a Graduate Studies Committee Representative for the DLGS in the 2024/2025 academic year, where he represented the interests of graduate law students at Dalhousie in the graduate admissions review processes of the Schulich School of Law. He also served as a Patron of the Tax Clubs of both the University of Nigeria and the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, where he provided professional guidance, mentorship, and support to undergraduate law, accounting, and business students interested in tax law and policy practice. He serves as an International Editor (2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic years) for the Cambridge Law Review at Cambridge University, United Kingdom, where he contributes to legal scholarship on various subjects.

Prior to commencing his PhD program in Taxation and Finance at Dalhousie University, Emmanuel was a Senior Associate in the tax, employment, and commercial disputes resolution practices of Banwo & Ighodalo – a leading commercial law firm in Nigeria. He was also the Team Lead of the Tax Practice in the firm. Emmanuel has nine (9) years’ extensive experience in conducting advanced domestic and international tax research, and in providing a wide range of tailored tax (and business advisory), transactional support, employment, and commercial disputes resolution services to various clients. He regularly combines his legal, tax, employment, and general business advisory knowledge to achieve the required blend of law and business necessary for targeted client satisfaction. Emmanuel’s core practice areas are tax, employment, competition, and commercial disputes resolution. His practical tax specialties include general corporate tax, international tax, transfer pricing, transactional tax, private client and wealth management, tax technology, tax deal advisory, indirect tax, real estate tax, financial services tax, tax controversy, consumer and industrial markets tax, tax policymaking and reform, and tax administration and enforcement. He has been recognized thrice as a “Rising Star” Leader for General Corporate Tax in the International Tax Review (ITR) Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) World Tax Practitioners Rankings 2023, 2024, and 2025. He was also shortlisted for the “Transfer Pricing Law Firm Rising Star” and the “Indirect Tax Law Firm Rising Star” awards on the ITR EMEA Tax Awards 2024 Shortlist.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Emmanuel is deeply committed to mentoring young legal and business professionals, offering them guidance on tax competency and tax capacity development, including guidance on career advancement in tax practice and scholarly tax writing. This passion for giving back to the tax community fueled his vision for founding the Emmanuel Onyeabor Tax Initiative (EOTI) on 15 January 2025.

Emmanuel can be reached at eonyeabor@eotaxinitiative.org.