Today we’d like to introduce you to Ope Adebanjo.
Hi Ope, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story is one of bringing together many different interests.
I studied literature and sociology in college and then went on to law school at Harvard Law School. I knew I had an interest in literature, art, creative spaces, food, fashion—many different things. So while I was at law school, I learned the law, including all the fundamentals and the doctrine, but I also continued reading, learning to cook, and engaging with creatives in the Boston area and around the world as I learned more about intellectual property protection and what it means to protect your work.
My story really came together when I started writing myself. My first book, The Food Lover’s Guide to Law, came out in fall 2023. My second book, The League of Style, came out in fall 2024. Prior to that, I had worked in legal roles—law firms, legal departments—and then found myself in a legal technology startup that did work with legal AI and contracts. I had a strong interest in tech as well.
I would say my story really is about bringing things together: many different worlds, whether that’s law, fashion, food, or creativity, and how all of those seemingly different worlds are actually very related and contribute to one another.
The Food Lover’s Guide to Law helps law students learn the law through food metaphors and visuals—because who doesn’t love food? So many of the students I met and many students today are visual learners and have never had a text or resource that appealed to them in the way that they think. I knew as someone who was a visual learner myself that this helped me when I was studying law, and I knew it would help others as well.
The League of Style takes place in Lagos, Nigeria, in the fashion industry, and brings together so many cool things that are happening on the continent: fashion, tech, music, architecture. It explores what it looks like to create and share your work in environments where you may not necessarily have the same legal protection as someone else in the world would, but you’re immersed in this incredibly creative, resilient, and energetic city like Lagos or a country like Nigeria.
The League of Style is a mystery series, so there is that element of legal investigation, evidence, and figuring out what’s really going on behind the scenes. Bringing that into the fiction world, into a space that’s glamorous, intriguing, and high society—it all allows many different areas and expertise that I have to come together into some really cool work that people enjoy.
I would say my background, my heritage, and my interests all come together in my work and have made becoming a writer so rich, with so many different threads that I bring together in every story that I write.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been challenging, but it’s definitely taught me a lot along the way.
My story really is one of taking non-traditional paths and an innovative approach to my career and the projects that I work on—whether that’s going into legal technology and legal AI out of law school versus the traditional route, or writing as an independent artist versus getting a publishing deal.
There are so many new avenues and new trails that folks can blaze with the new technology we have and the access to audiences, which provides a lot of opportunity. But it can also be nerve-wracking trying to create your own path where there might not be one already.
I would say that’s probably been the most challenging aspect: determining how best to connect to audiences. And that’s not just audiences here in the U.S., but particularly when it comes to The League of Style, Nigerians and Africans in the diaspora as well as on the continent who are excited about stories like this and excited to see their culture and lived experiences reflected in literature.
The most fun part has been really just enjoying the process of finding new avenues and new ways to reach them, whether that’s social media or including visuals in the book, which allows people who maybe don’t consider themselves to be traditional readers to enjoy the stories as well.
Taking an innovative approach to your work can make you nervous, but it can also make you feel free in that you don’t have any expectations. You just want to see how things play out and how they resonate with people. Every time you do it, you learn something new about the way people think, the way they enjoy art, and the way they engage with one another and with the things they like to read or watch.
That’s been probably the most challenging part: allowing myself to be innovative, not being afraid to take risks, but also making sure I’m learning every step of the way so that those lessons aren’t lost, regardless of the outcome.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m Ope, a lawyer and mystery fiction author who brings together seemingly different worlds—law, creativity, technology, and culture—into work that resonates across boundaries.
My legal background from Harvard Law School forms the foundation of everything I do, but it’s how I apply that expertise that sets me apart. I’m deeply invested in the intersection of law and artificial intelligence, and I work with students and legal professionals to help them navigate innovation in the legal field. I wrote The Food Lover’s Guide to Law as a visual study aid that makes legal concepts accessible and engaging—because learning the law shouldn’t be dry or intimidating.
What I’m most proud of is my ability to bridge cultures and create work that speaks to multiple audiences. As a first-generation Nigerian-American, I’ve always existed between worlds, and that perspective shapes everything I create. The League of Style, my mystery novel series set in Lagos’s fashion industry, came from my desire to tell stories that reflect the vibrancy, creativity, and complexity of contemporary Nigeria—stories that connect Africans in the diaspora to the culture and energy of the continent while introducing global readers to a world they might not otherwise encounter.
I specialize in making the complex feel approachable and the distant feel close. Whether I’m demystifying legal concepts, advising on legal tech, or crafting mysteries that transport readers to Lagos, my work is about opening doors—showing young people, especially African millennials and Gen Zs, what’s possible when you refuse to be limited by traditional paths. I want my work to be both a mirror and a window: a reflection for those who see themselves in these stories, and an invitation for everyone else to step into worlds they’ve never explored.
What sets me apart is this commitment to innovation without losing authenticity. I’m not afraid to take unconventional routes or blend disciplines in unexpected ways, and I believe that’s where the most meaningful work happens—at the intersections.
The League of Style is available now at leagueofstyleseries.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
What’s next?
The next thing on the horizon is publishing the rest of The League of Style series. I’m super excited to be releasing that at the end of this year in December 2025.
The book follows Sade Durojaiye, a fashion journalist, as she returns to Lagos, Nigeria, and joins the secretive world of the League of Style, which is a private investigation firm posing as a fashion blog. It’s been so much fun to write, and readers really enjoyed the first book, which came out at the end of last year. Continuing the series is really the main thing on the horizon right now.
The series takes place in Lagos, Nigeria, and explores many different aspects of the creative industries: sports, music, film, TV, tech, fashion—all these areas. It’s been so fun to speak to, interview, and work with Nigerian creatives on the project to really bring to life this incredible world that is the creative space in Lagos.
The series comes out at the end of December, and I hope people enjoy it—both the storytelling as well as the visuals. There are AI-generated visuals in the novel that make the world come alive. You see the fashion, you see the city, and really get to enjoy all of it. I hope you enjoy all the fun parts of traveling to Lagos, even from your own living room.
I’m super excited for that to come out and for folks to continue to engage with Sade’s story.
Pricing:
- The League of Style (paperback) – $19.99
- The League of Style (eBook) – $9.99
- The Food Lover’s Guide to Law (hardcover) – $40
- The Food Lover’s Guide to Law (eBook) – $20
Contact Info:
- Website: www.opeadebanjo.com
- Instagram: @opeoadebanjo
- Facebook: Facebook.com/theopeadebanjo
- Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/opeadebanjo
- Twitter: @adebanjo_ope
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@OpeAdebanjo
- Other: TikTok: @opeoadebanjo
