Kafarati began his career after his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme as a State Counsel II at the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice. He became the principal state counsel in 1987 and served as assistant administrator-general before he was appointed a judge of the Federal High Court on October 31, 1991. He was inaugurated as the acting chief judge of the Federal High Court on September 16, 2017, and eventually became the chief judge of the court on June 7, 2018. Adam Abdu-Kafarati retired 13 months later, clocking the mandatory retirement age of 65 on July 25, 2019.
