LACIAC Court
Members
- Lise Bosman
- Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab
- Chukwuka Ikwuazom, SAN
- Abdul-Lateef Jinadu
- John M. Miles
- Prof. Oba Nsugbe, QC, SAN
- Dr. Tunde Ogowewo
- Seyilayo Ojo
- Prof. Emilia Onyema
- Kamal Shah
- Maryan Hassan
- Wairimu Karanja
- Njeri Kariuki
- Julien Kavaruganda
- Madeline Kimei
- Jacqueline Lule
- Harry Matovou, QC
- Abayomi Okubote
- Jonathan Ripley-Evans
Biographies
Lise Bosman
Lise Bosman is a Senior Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and Executive Director of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), based at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
She has over twenty years of experience in the field of international dispute resolution, through her work in international law firms, international organisations and in-house. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a Fellow of the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa) and the Acting General Editor of the ICCA International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration. She has published and spoken widely in the field of international arbitration, and is the General Editor and contributing author of Arbitration in Africa: a Practitioner’s Guide (Kluwer Law International, 2013).
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab is the Founding Partner & Head of the International Arbitration, Construction, Oil & Gas and Projects Groups. Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab is also the Chair of the Private International law Department and Professor of International Arbitration at Cairo University; Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration; Member of the ICCA Governing Board; Vice- Chair, IBA Arab Regional Forum; Member of the CRCICA Advisory Committee; Court Member of the CIMAC; Dean and Member of the Advisory Council of the Africa Arbitration Academy; amongst many others.
He is recognized as a world- leading arbitrator and arbitration practitioner on international investment and international commercial arbitration, Egyptian and Arab laws, Islamic Shari’a, and online dispute resolution. He has served as ‘Sole Arbitrator’, ‘Presiding Arbitrator’, ‘Party Appointed Arbitrator’, ‘Legal Expert’ or ‘Counsel’ in more than 200 arbitration cases involving parties from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States.
He has featured in cases under the auspices of numerous international arbitration institutions as well as in ad hoc proceedings.
Abdul-Lateef Jinadu
Abdul-Lateef Jinadu was called to the Bar in 1995 and has been a practicing barrister in Keating Chambers since 1996, specializing in construction, engineering and energy disputes, and domestic and international arbitration. His practice covers a wide spectrum of advisory work, drafting and advocacy, related to standard form and bespoke contracts; contractors’, sub-contractors’ and employers’ claims; professional negligence claims (architects, engineers, surveyors and valuers).
He has extensive experience of a wide range of disputes and advisory work relating to infrastructure projects. Significant cases have involved oil and gas; facilities pharmaceutical plants, hospitals, mining, marine construction, major projects at Canary Wharf as well as local authority cases and other major construction projects.
He has acted for a number of international clients in international disputes including the National Petroleum Company of Trinidad, the governments of Ghana and Malawi, a Kuwaiti company in an engineering dispute in the oil sector and a large arbitration concerning the construction of a large oil and gas project in the UAE.
Abdul Jinadu has lectured on a wide range of subjects to a wide range of professional bodies.
John M. Miles
John Miles is the Director of JMiles & Co., which provides specialised services in the fields of international arbitration, investigation and legal consulting.
John Miles has over thirty years’ experience working in Africa and has represented governments and the private sector in both advisory and dispute resolution matters. His experience includes running the Denton Wilde Sapte office in Beijing between 1989-1998 and Cairo between 1998-2001. He is English law qualified and his team at JMiles & Co. consists of foreign and Kenyan qualified lawyers.
John is the sole Kenyan member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Fraud Net organisation, the leading independent network of lawyers specializing in fraud, white collar crime and asset recovery. John is also the Chairman, International Section, and Kenyan Chapter of the Indian National Bar Association.
Pro Oba Nsugbe QC, SAN
Oba Nsugbe QC, SAN is widely acknowledged as one of the UK’s and Nigeria’s leading barristers. He has a broad international practice with a particular interest in Africa. He provides high-level advice and representation for individuals, corporate clients and other organisations, (including NGOs), in matters ranging from business crime and corrupt practices, commercial litigation and dispute resolution.
Called to the Bar in 1985, when Oba took silk in 2002 aged only 39, he was described in a leading law commentary as “a rising star of the Bar of England and Wales”. He commands considerable respect from both clients and peers. Numerous entries in Chambers and Partners over the years have described him as “a first-class advocate” as well as “a true gentleman who deserves his fabulous reputation”, adding that he has a “fine forensic mind” and is admired for his “technical excellence”.
He is qualified in both the UK and Nigeria and is highly experienced in the courts of both countries. He specialises in arbitration and complex commercial disputes acting for companies and individuals working in Africa, in particular Nigeria. He is also experienced in fraud and Asset recovery work. Oba provides high level advocacy and advisory services to a wide range of local and international clients, and is frequently involved in multi-jurisdictional cases
Dr. Tunde Ogowewo
Dr. Tunde Ogowewo teaches Corporate Finance Law, Corporate Governance, and Mergers and Acquisitions Law at postgraduate level. He is also a Joint Global Hauser Professor of Law at NYU Law School, New York and Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance at the National University of Singapore. He is recognised as a leading expert on UK takeover law.
He was co-editor of the Journal of African Law (Cambridge University Press) between 2000 and 2007 and is presently on the editorial board of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Edinburgh University Press) and the Securities Market Journal. He has consulted for various bodies including the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, the Presidency of Nigeria, the Queen’s Proctor, the Treasury Solicitor, and the Commonwealth Secretariat. In 2003, he co-chaired an International Conference of legal experts under the auspices of the US State Department of Commerce, which led to the adaptation of a Model Law on Investment in Africa.
He is professionally qualified as a Barrister (Middle Temple) and Solicitor (England and Wales) and also as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is a member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is active in international commercial arbitration. He has been nominated to act as Arbitrator by the Governments of Sri Lanka and Tanzania at the International Court of Arbitration and has also acted as Counsel to the Federal Republic of Nigeria in investment disputes. His expertise is regularly sought by City firms and governmental agencies in litigation in the UK and ICC and ICSID arbitrators.
Seyilayo Ojo
A legal practitioner based in Lagos. Since his call to bar, he has been engaged in active practice of law. His experience cuts across transaction documentation, litigation and alternative dispute resolution particularly in the areas of corporate, commercial and admiralty law. He has attended and distinguished himself in series of courses both locally and internationally.
Seyilayo Ojo attended Obafemi Awolowo University where he obtained an LL. B (Hons.), and subsequently attended University College London where he obtained his LL.M in International Business Law. He was the recipient of the 2004 Victor Folsom Fellowship/ Scholarship from the Centre for American and International Law, Texas, U.S.A., where he attended the Academy for American and International Law. He has also appeared before the various tribunals – private and governmental – as well as trial and appellate courts in Nigeria and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School, Pan African University.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom, an Accredited Mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), a member of the Advisory Board, Institute for Transnational Arbitration, Centre for American and International Law, U.S.A; a member of the Panel of Neutrals, Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse and Nigeria Communications Commission. Seyilayo Ojo is also an associate Member, Institute for Transnational Arbitration, Centre for American and International Law, USA.
Prof. Emilia Onyema
Emilia Onyema is a Professor in International Commercial Law at School of Law, SOAS, University of London. She teaches international trade law and international commercial and investment arbitration. She was formerly a research fellow at the School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London.
In 1989, Prof. Onyema was qualified to practice law in Nigeria, a solicitor in England & Wales (since 2002), and was the alternate tribunal secretary of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal in London from 2007 to 2014. She holds a PhD in international commercial arbitration with research interests in sales law, and is widely published in these areas.
She is the author of the Chartered Institute’s workbook on Introduction to International Commercial Arbitration and her book, International Commercial Arbitration and the Arbitrator’s Contract was published in February 2010 by Routledge & Cavendish.
Kamal Shah
Kamal Shah is the head of Stephenson Harwood’s Africa and India Groups. He specialises in complex, cross-border international arbitration, litigation and fraud and asset tracing.
Kamal acts for Governments, Government entities, banks, private corporations and high net worth individuals in a range of matters including those relating to projects and infrastructure, joint ventures, banking products, shareholder disputes, energy disputes, and a range of schemes commonly used to defraud individuals and corporations.
Kamal is highly ranked in the Legal directories including Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and IFLR1000, and was listed in the Lawyer’s Hot 100 list of leading lawyers in the UK for 2009 and 2014. Kamal is currently the Vice President of the LCIA African Users.
Kamal co-published the text of the ‘African Promise’, which seeks to tackle the under-representation of Africans on international arbitration tribunals. He is also the co-author of the leading text “Arbitration in Africa: A Review of Key Jurisdictions”.
Maryan Hassan
Maryan Hassan is a Scholar-in-Residence in the International Arbitration Practice Group at WilmerHale, London. She was, until her resignation in June 2020, the Chief Negotiator for WTO Accession at the Office of the President, the youngest woman ever appointed, and former Chief Legal Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia. Maryann Hassan was previously Legal Adviser to the Somali Mission to the UN in New York and is a panel member at the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). She also founded the task force for the Horn of Africa’s first ADR Trade Disputes Centre (DJIAC), under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Wairimu Karanja
Wairimu Karanja is the founder of, and lead consultant at, Wairimu & Co. (W&Co.), a specialist firm and consultancy, based in Nairobi, which advises on African and international law and policy matters. She previously worked at Anjarwalla & Khanna and JMiles & Co., both based in Kenya. Wairimu has been recognized as a future leader in Who’s Who Legal (WWL) Arbitration. Her advisory work has spanned several countries and sectors, including advice to SMEs in Kenya; co-ordination of telecommunication M&A advice in 15 countries in Africa; wind and solar power project advice in Kenya; mining project advice in Kenya and South Sudan; oil refinery and project advice in East Africa; electricity mini-grid advice in Kenya; private equity advice in Mauritius; real estate investment advice relating to the Ivory Coast; and international arbitration representation in Tanzania, UK and Mozambique. Wairimu is a co-organiser of the annual East Africa International Arbitration Conference (EAIAC). She has also spoken at conferences on investment, international disputes and ENR in China, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, the UAE, the UK, and the US. She has contributed to books and publications on ENR, international dispute resolution, and investment in Africa.
Njeri Kariuki
Njeri Kariuki is an advocate who has specialised in resolving disputes through arbitration and ADR. During the course of her career, she has delivered awards as a sole arbitrator spanning the petroleum, insurance, banking, industry and corporate sectors, mainly in the domestic arena. Njeri has also sat on several three-panel tribunals, as co-arbitrator, determining disputes in similar sectors. Besides being an arbitrator, Njeri is also an accredited mediator and is listed as a trainer and a tutor of several courses with the AFL of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In addition, Njeri sat as Chair of a Dispute Adjudication Board set-up to nurse an international geothermal project to fruition for a period of three years. In her primary profession as an advocate, Njeri takes on, in the main, non-contentious matters in the realm of real estate (conveyancing) law, probate and succession, commercial contracts, company/business formations and company secretarial matters.
Njeri has been listed as a leading individual of the 2014–2018 editions of Chambers Global, has received the 2017 Arbitration Award in Kenya from International Advisory Experts, and has also been nominated by the Government of the Republic of Kenya to the Panel of Arbitrators at ICSID. Njeri has been a Member of the ICC-International Court of Arbitration, representing Kenya, since June 2018.
Julien Kavaruganda
Julien Kavaruganda is the Founder & Senior Partner of K-Solutions & Partners in Kigali, Rwanda. He is the President of the Rwanda Bar Association and Board member of the East African Law Society, Bank of Kigali and Kigali International Arbitration Center, and New Bugarama Mining Company Ltd. His practice covers corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, privatisation, banking and finance, investment funds, capital markets, arbitration, real estate and construction, energy and natural resources, and infrastructure law.
Madeline Kimei
Madeline Kimei is an arbitrator/ mediator on the panels of Shanghai International Arbitration Centre, Tanzania Institute Arbitrators and National Construction Council and has experience as an arbitral secretary. She has a liking for tech and known for developing the first online dispute resolution platform in 2015 named iResolve Tanzania (www.iresolve.co.tz). Her focus is on reshaping the delivery of ADR services for the future demand and increasing access to justice. She is a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Vice Chair of the Tanzania Institute of Arbitrators (TIArb). She has knowledge of the ICC Rules and Procedures and the UNCITRAL Model Law and its Rules on both mediation and arbitration. Madeline actively participates and promotes arbitration and other ADR mechanisms in Tanzania and as an ADR enthusiast, Madeline also writes and speaks on dispute resolution topics.
Jacqueline Lule
Jacqueline is a Barrister of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, an Arbitrator, (MCiArb) and a C.E.D.R Accredited Mediator. She practiced in immigration, employment, and criminal law for 17 years in the UK, and taught on the Bar Professional Training Course for over 10 years on a part-time basis. In 2015, Jacqueline took up partnership in a pan-African law firm based in Uganda, arbitrating commercial disputes, and advising large corporations foreign governments, Aid Agencies, INGO’s, and private companies on incorporation/registration, and their legal and regulatory responsibilities in Uganda in the areas of governance, employment law, corporate and commercial law; banking; and anti-corruption, bribery, and money laundering. Jacqueline holds LL. M’s in Human Rights Law, (1997), and Commercial and Corporate Law, (2012), from SOAS University of London and Queen Mary University of London respectively. She works with the Offie of Staff Legal Assistance at the United Nations UN Regional Service Centre, Entebbe.
Harry Matovou, QC
Harry Matovu is a member of the Brick Court Chambers and was nominated as Silk (QC) of the Year for International Arbitration in the Legal 500 Awards 2020. He is a noted advocate with a high-profile commercial practice, including energy and natural resources, finance, civil fraud, insurance/reinsurance and arbitration. He acts as both counsel and arbitrator under ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL and ARIAS Rules, as well as ad hoc references. Harry is instructed as Leading Counsel in major energy, infrastructure and insurance/reinsurance disputes. He is named in The Lawyer ‘Hot 100’ List for 2021 and he was nominated as Silk (QC) of the Year for International Arbitration in the Legal 500 Awards 2020. He was recognised in the Powerlist 2021 as one of the most influential Black professionals in the UK.
Dr. Abayomi Okubote
Abayomi Okubote a Senior Associate and Team Lead in the International Arbitration Practice of Olaniwun Ajayi LP. He is the prime mover behind several important arbitration initiatives in Africa. He is the Founder and President of the Association of Young Arbitrators (AYA), Co-Founder of Africa Arbitration, and Managing Editor of the Africa Arbitration Blog. He has completed secondment programs at the London offices of Baker McKenzie LLP and 4-5 Gray’s Inn. Abayomi has been appointed by the Nigerian courts and has sat as an arbitrator in a number of arbitrations. He is a scholar of the International Bar Association and graduate scholar at Queen’s University, Canada; and is currently a Doctoral Researcher at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on third-party funding (TPF) in International Arbitration and is proposing a new framework for the regulation of TPF.
Jonathan Ripley-Evans
Jonathan Ripley Evans is the Disputes Director of Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) Johannesburg office. His practice is focused on alternative dispute resolution, particularly, arbitration and mediation. He has acted as mediator and as advisor in both mediations and arbitrations, domestic and international. He specialises in the resolution of commercial disputes in a wide range of sectors including energy, mining, tourism, hospitality, property and engineering. He has been ranked as a Future Leader in Who’s Who Legal and recently recognised in Chambers and Partners Global as an “Up and Coming” Lawyer. He has co-authored articles on arbitration within Africa on the Kluwer Arbitration blog, and a contributor on the Herbert Smith Freehills podcasts. He is an accredited Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) mediator and arbitrator; a member of the Africa Group of the China-Africa Joint Arbitration Centre (CAJAC) Johannesburg and the Law Society of the Northern Provinces. Prior to HSF, he was a Director of the Dispute Resolution Team at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc.
Chukwuka Ikwuazom, SAN
Chukwuka Ikwuazom is a Partner, head of the Taxation practice and a key member of the Litigation, Dispute Resolution and Risk Management practice at Aluko & Oyebode. Chukwuka has considerable tax advisory and adjudicatory experience. He renders ongoing tax advice to the Firm’s clients, including those in the oil and gas sector. He has also represented clients in tax litigation before several courts in Nigeria. As a Partner in our Litigation, Dispute Resolution and Risk Management practice, Chukwuka has worked closely with Babatunde Fagbohunlu as lead counsel in representing clients in numerous litigation and arbitration proceedings. Chukwuka was a key member of the team (led by Babatunde Fagbohunlu) which won a favourable award for our clients in an arbitration involving several tax disputes arising from the operation and performance of a 1993 PSC executed between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and a number of IOCs.
Chukwuka has been recognised for his outstanding law skills and academic excellence with awards such as; the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for Academic Excellence, University of Columbia School of Law (New York) in 2009, Judith R. and Michael E. Thoyer Scholarship for LL.M Students with Outstanding Academic Credentials, University of Columbia School of Law (New York) in 2008.
