Eshigo P. Okasili

In the first half of her legal education, Eshigo Okasili worked full time, attended law school part time, and volunteered with African-American Family Services and Legal Aid (both in Minneapolis, Minnesota). In the second half of her legal education, she attended law school full time, worked part time, and volunteered as a student-attorney (under the supervision of licensed attorneys). Eshigo had her first two children while she was a law student and graduated from William Mitchell College of Law (now, Mitchell Hamline School of Law) in St. Paul, MN, in 2003. After her graduation, Eshigo devoted her time to raising her children and assisting her husband with his real estate business. She had her third and youngest child in 2006.

Eshigo was admitted to Maryland Court of Appeals in June 2009. In September 2009, she founded Law Office of Eshigo P. Okasili, LLC and immediately began to provide legal services to her community. Her practice focuses primarily on immigration law and family law (i.e. prenuptial agreements, separation agreements, absolute divorce, annulment, child custody, child support, equitable distribution of marital property, and spousal support or alimony). In addition, she provides alternative dispute resolution services to her clients in the areas of mediation, facilitation and Collaborative Law.

Eshigo has a client-centered practice and serves her clients by advising them of the options available to them, setting realistic expectations for them, working hard to settle matters out of court when appropriate, and litigating them only when it is the most viable option—all while demonstrating cultural competence and empathy towards all of her clients. Eshigo is trained as a child counsel and serves as a court-appointed guardian ad litem (unique legal guardian or advocate for persons with diminished mental capacity) in Child In Need of Assistance (CINA) matters. In addition, she is trained as a civil and divorce mediator and as a family and civil collaborative practitioner. Most of her clients have international backgrounds. Therefore, Eshigo provides cross-border services to many of her clients.

Eshigo obtained her education in countries located in three continents: Africa, Europe, and North America. She is fluent in French. Her clients include international and domestic clients (who live in the United States). Eshigo serves a racially, socially, economically, and culturally diverse clientele. Besides her legal training, she offers her clients the benefits of a global perspective, her common sense, creative problem-solving skills, curiosity, her life experiences, passion, compassion, emotional intelligence, empathy, respect and dignity in what tends to be a time of crisis and vulnerability for most of them.

She serves her community in various capacities and was an active PTSA member at her children's schools. Eshigo is a proud member of University of Maryland Terp Family and Towson University Family. For full disclosure, two of Eshigo’s children attend University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland and one of them attends Towson Unversity in Towson, Maryland. She is a wife and mother of three adults. In her spare time, Eshigo loves establishing family traditions and shooting hoops with her family. She also enjoys reading, traveling, and photography.