Charles Adeogun-Phillips (Warwick Law Alumnus, 1986) visited the Law School last month for the first time in over 30 years, to give a seminar to our students.

Charles, who founded Charles Anthony LLP, gave a talk in the Law School student hub on Friday 26 January to a mix of undergraduate students, postgraduate students and staff.

He spoke about his experience at Warwick, remembering the department fondly, telling students “there was always something unique about the law here - getting to study the various subjects from a very contextual and contemporary point of view.”

He went on to discuss his career to date as an accomplished litigation practitioner and former international prosecutor within the United Nations Organisation. He talked about the work he carried out as a pioneer lead International Prosecutor, Senior Counsel and Head of Special Investigations, where he led teams of international lawyers in 12 genocide trials before an international court, such as the prosecution of persons involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

One of our students at the event really enjoyed listening to what Charles had to say. She told us, “I thought it was very interesting and helpful, especially because it related to the area of international law which I want to learn more about. I enjoyed learning about the speaker’s path in life; how he came to work in criminal international law and how he became involved in such an important task as to prosecute actors of genocide.”

The students looked in awe of Charles as he spoke about his life. One student told us, “I thought the talk was very inspiring and it really explored the difficulties of international law in a way that I hadn't thought about (especially the discussion around cultural differences and language barriers).”

Charles told the students that what you might not enjoy studying at University may not be the case in real life out in the working world, so your path could lead you anywhere. When asked what careers advice he would give, he responded “Just go with the flow!”

Following the seminar, he spoke with Sanjeeb Hossain, one of our PhD students. An article on this discussion is available to view in the Lacuna magazine titled 'Fighting for justice after genocide in Rwanda'.

Charles was back at Warwick to take part in the student-led Warwick in Africa Summit which focused this year on ‘Ubuntu – Integrating Africa’. Charles was invited along to speak on their Governance panel and hold a breakout session during the event. He spoke about the international community’s response to conflict in Africa over the past two decades.

Find out more about what some of our other African alumni have to say about Warwick.