Some journeys begin with privilege. Others begin with grit.
For Yetunde Dania, the path into law wasn’t lit by legacy—it was carved through resilience, clarity, and an unshakable sense of purpose. Raised in interracial foster care, navigating systems that weren’t built for someone who looked like her, sounded like her, or carried her story, she learned early on how to move through the world with both sharpness and grace.
She qualified as a solicitor in 1996. Made partner in 2005. And joined Trowers & Hamlins LLP to help open a new Birmingham office—turning a 14-person seed of an idea into a flourishing team of over 140. In 2020, she was appointed Head of Office, becoming one of only a handful of Black women to lead a major UK legal office.
In an industry still learning what equity truly means, Yetunde Dania is a quiet, steady force. She doesn’t disrupt for the sake of it. She builds. She mentors. She leads with calm conviction, with careful listening, with the ability to translate both complexity and care into something transformative. Her work in housing law is precise and essential—but it’s the human impact that drives her.
That sense of purpose echoes far beyond the walls of her firm.
Between 2018 – 2021 she served on the Advisory Board for the Care Leavers Covenant, using her own lived experience to shape policy, uplift futures, and fight for young people navigating care with too little support and too few examples of where they could go. Yetunde’s parting gift was to embed the Care Leavers Covenant within Trowers & Hamlins LLP as its now pro bono legal partner.
In 2021, Yetunde Dania was appointed the first Independent Chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Race Equalities Taskforce, charged with creating tangible strategies to dismantle systemic racism across the region—leading on the creation of their 5-year strategy entitled Race Forward.
Since leaving this role, Yetunde Dania has focused her attention on championing Black business and has been instrumental in the creation of the Black Business Collective, part of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.
Every space she enters, Yetunde Dania changes—not through noise, but through presence. Through excellence. Through an unwavering belief in what’s possible when more voices are heard, more paths are made, and more people are allowed to rise without shrinking parts of themselves to fit in.
Her leadership is expansive, not extractive. Measured, not performative. And deeply personal. She doesn’t forget the journey. She honours it—with every appointment, every keynote, every mentoring session, and every decision made with those who come next in mind.
Yetunde Dania is not just a partner in law—she is a partner in progress. A builder of better systems. A voice for those whose stories haven’t always been told in boardrooms or echoed in chambers.
Because for Yetunde Dania, success is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of making space for others to step forward, fully seen—and fully empowered.
