Steering Committee – Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre

Ali Adamjee is a barrister at the Chambers of Sir Hamid Moollan QC. He is called to the Bars of England & Wales and Mauritius. Ali specialises in international arbitration and commercial litigation. He has experience before the Supreme Court of Mauritius and international arbitral tribunals. Areas of his practice include international arbitration (incl. arbitration-related court applications), recognition and enforcement under the New York Convention, investment treaty arbitration, injunctive relief, private international law, civil fraud, company & insolvency law, and trusts law. Ali advises and represents companies, States, and State-owned entities in complex cross-jurisdictional disputes and works closely with multi-jurisdictional legal teams. He has been involved as junior counsel in one of the largest Mauritian-seated international arbitration and has successfully enforced the largest international arbitration award in Mauritius.

Prior to joining the Mauritian bar, Ali practised exclusively in the field of international arbitration. He was a member of the International Arbitration Groups of Clifford Chance LLP (London) and Shearman & Sterling LLP (Paris). Ali has also acquired institutional experience as a research assistant at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

Dr. Babatunde Ajibade, SAN is the managing partner of S. P. A. Ajibade & Co, a leading corporate and commercial law firm with offices in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja, Nigeria. Dr. Ajibade is a dispute resolution specialist and has substantial expertise in all aspects of commercial litigation as well as in commercial arbitration both domestic and international, as well as in investment treaty arbitration.

He has acted as counsel and as an arbitrator in a wide variety of complex commercial disputes in the energy industry involving gas product sharing agreements, petroleum transporting agreements and equipment supply agreements; corporate disputes involving complicated shareholder agreements and intra-company shareholder claims; labour disputes involving executive management contracts; and many others. He also has expertise in all aspects of commercial litigation and is a recognised expert in the law relating to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and in capital markets disputes.

He is the current chair of the International Bar Association’s African Regional Forum; the chair of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Judiciary Committee; the chair of the Judiciary Relations Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos Branch; a director of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC); a vice president of the ICC Arbitration Commission’s steering committee; the vice chairman of the ICC Arbitration Commission’s Nigeria Committee; a director of ICC Nigeria; a member of the ICC’s Africa Commission; a member of the African Arbitration Association; a member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) African Users Council; a member of the Lagos Court of Arbitration; and a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Nigeria branch. Dr. Ajibade was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1989.

He obtained a LLM degree in corporate and commercial law in 1990 and a PhD in private international law in 1996, both from King’s College London. He was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in December 2007. He was awarded the International Practice Fellowship of the International Bar Association in Madrid in October 2009 and he became a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK in January 2015.

Tunde Fagbohunlu SAN is a Senior Partner and Head of the Litigation & Arbitration Practice. He is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (admitted 1988). In December 2008, he was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by the Nigerian Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee.

Tunde has represented various multinational clients in litigation and arbitrations. He renders legal advice on a wide range of commercial transactions. He also regularly represents Nigerian as well as foreign and multinational clients in arbitration and before arbitral institutions, such as the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC. He has also been appointed arbitrator in several arbitration proceedings.

In 2021, the Legal 500 EMEA recognised him as a leading individual in Dispute Resolution. He was ranked Band 1 in Dispute Resolution in Chambers Global 2021.

He was described as “well known and highly regarded and has been involved in a lot of ground-breaking matters in the oil and gas industry”. Also, he has recognised as a Highly Regarded Lawyer in the 2021 IFLR1000 rankings.

He was, until December 2020, the Chairman of LACIAC’s Board of Directors. He is co-author of Arbitration in Africa: a Review of Key Jurisdictions (Sweet & Maxwell, 2016) along with Kamal Shah and John Miles.

Wairimu Karanja is the founder of W&Co, a legal advisory firm based in Nairobi. She is a member of the LACIAC Africa Energy Arbitrators’ Forum (AEA)’s Steering Committee and a member of the LACIAC Court.

Wairimu is an international lawyer qualified in Kenya, with 12 years’ legal experience. She has advised private sector and development organisations on various projects in Africa relating to: renewable energy and climate change policy; power project development and financing; private equity; mergers & acquisitions; international arbitration; immigration and employment; intellectual property; and technology.

She is recognized in Who’s Who Legal (WWL) 2021 rankings as a Future Leader in Arbitration. and has previously worked with leading Kenyan and international law firms and institutions, including Anjarwalla & Khanna (Kenya), JMiles & Co. (Africa) Stephenson Harwood (UK), the Extractives Hub (UK) and the Energy Charter Secretariat (Belgium). She has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Nairobi, A Post-Graduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and a Master of Laws (LLM) Degree in Energy Law and Policy (Distinction) from the University of Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP).

Sarah McKenzie is a Partner at Webber Wentzel and specialises in complex, high value and high stakes international and domestic commercial and treaty arbitration, as well as high profile regulatory, international trade and commercial litigation.

She has represented parties in many domestic and international arbitrations (including under the auspices of the ICC, ICSID and AFSA, as well as under the UNCITRAL and other ad hoc arbitration rules) and at various Courts in the South African court system (including the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, and various divisions of the High Court).

Sarah is a member of Webber Wentzel’s Energy Sector steering committee and has acted for listed and non-listed entities, state-owned enterprises, statutory bodies and non-governmental organisations in a variety of fields, including construction and infrastructure, energy, healthcare, transport, tourism, manufacturing, mining, finance, private equity and auditing. She also spent a year at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa, clerking for Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

Sarah has presented at numerous international arbitration conferences and has published a number of articles in the field of international arbitration. She is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been recognized as a legal expert by the Legal 500 in both dispute resolution and construction.

Ngo-Martins is a senior associate in the top-ranking Dispute Resolution practice at Nigeria’s largest and leading full-service firm Aluko & Oyebode. He currently coordinates the firm’s construction and engineering practice with focus on oil & gas, power and infrastructure sectors. He is a key member of the firm’s arbitration team.

He holds an MSc. Construction Law and Dispute Resolution from the prestigious King’s College London and has built specific expertise in construction law and arbitration. He has prior work experience with global construction law firm, Pinsent Masons London and leading set of construction barristers’ chambers, Keating Chambers London as a foreign qualified lawyer handling project claims and construction related disputes.

He has expertise in major standard forms of construction and engineering contract including the JCT, FIDIC, and bespoke forms involving funder led EPC and EPCM. He advises clients (project owners and contractors) on a range of issues on project development and the resolution of disputes arising during projects, including dispute boards, adjudication, expert determination, and arbitration.

He has acted as arbitrator and arbitration counsel in both domestic and international arbitration pursuant to the ICC Rules, with seats in Switzerland, London, Miami Florida, and Nigeria.

Ibukunoluwa Owa is a Nigerian Qualified lawyer with a focus on energy related matters. She is currently a Visiting Foreign Lawyer with the international arbitration practice at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London. She is also an associate with the dispute resolution group at Aluko & Oyebode, Lagos.

She has represented and advised clients in arbitration and litigation proceedings and arbitration related litigation. She completed her LL.B from University of Dundee, Scotland and LL.M in International Commercial and Maritime Law, from Swansea university, Wales.

She is an Event Director with the Lagos Court of Arbitration young Lawyers Network and member of various professional networks such as the Nigerian Bar Association, CIARB United Kingdom and Young ICCA.

Suzanne Rattray is a senior engineer with more than 35 years professional experience. She has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University in Canada, specializing in structural engineering. She has had lead responsibilities on numerous infrastructure projects, in the transportation, building and energy sectors, in Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, DR Congo, Chad and Israel. She is a Director and Partner of Rankin Engineering Consultants, headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia.

She has been a practising Adjudicator and Arbitrator since 2008 and was admitted as a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2012, qualifying to Fellow Status in 2017.

Mrs Rattray is an Approved Faculty Trainer on the Arbitration and Adjudication Pathway Courses of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She served as Chairperson of the Zambia Branch of the Institute from 2018 – 2020. She is listed on the panels of several international arbitrtal institutions in Africa.

She is a member of the Board of Directors for LACIAC and has been recognised and included on the Africa’s 30 Arbitration Powerlist 2020 by the Africa Arbitration Academy.
Her experience in the energy sector includes engineering as well as dispute resolution in the following projects:

¨       Construction of 161/34.5kV Bulk-Supply Substation- Ghana
¨       Feasibility Study for 140 MW Wind Power Project – Zambia
¨       Feasibility Study for 100 MW Solar PV project – Zambia
¨       Feasibility Study for 106 MW HydroPower plant – Zambia
¨       Construction of 34 MW Solar PV Plant – Zambia
¨       Feasibility Study for 150 MW Wind Farm – Zambia

Maxi Scherer is a Professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London, School of International Arbitration, where she holds the Chair for International Arbitration, Dispute Resolution and Energy Law. She is also a Special Counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London.

Maxi has extensive experience with arbitral practice both in civil and common law systems, with a particular focus in the energy sector. She has represented clients, provided expert opinions and sat as arbitrator in more than 100 commercial and investor-state arbitrations. She has been regularly ranked by Chambers Global, Who’s Who Legal, BestLawyers, The Legal 500 etc. as leading arbitration practitioner: including as “Global Elite Thought Leaders” and “Most In Demand Arbitrators – Europe”.

Maxi is a Vice-President of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and holds many other public appointments of trust, including being a member of: the panel of arbitrators (ICSID), the International Advisory Board of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) and Drafting Committee for new protocols to the Arbitration Rules of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). She also chaired the recent revision of the arbitral rules of the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa (AFSA).

Kamal Shah is a partner and head of the Africa and India groups at Stephenson Harwood. He specialises in complex, cross-border international arbitration, litigation and fraud and asset recovery in a range of sectors. Kamal is highly ranked in the legal directories including The Legal 500 UK, Chambers and Who’s Who Legal: Future Leaders, and has been recognised in Africa’s 30 Arbitration Powerlist 2020.

In addition to being a LCIA Court Member, Kamal is the president of the LCIA African Users Council. He co-published the ‘African Promise’, which seeks to tackle the under-representation of Africans in arbitration.

Titilope is a Senior Legal Counsel at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC). She holds a Masters Degree in Comparative and International Dispute Resolution from the Queen Mary University of London.

At LACIAC, she oversees and manages dispute resolution proceedings, and coordinates the affairs of the Board Committees responsible for Training and Conferences, Thought Leadership events, and Publicity/Communication which includes providing company secretarial services, developing concepts and planning training and related events. Titilope also assists in establishing and implementing policies aimed at promoting the Centre’s vision of being a Pan-African centre.

Prior to obtaining her Master’s Degree and working with LACIAC, she worked in both the Advocacy and Transactions Departments of Paul Usoro & Co, where she acted as transaction advisor on a number of projects, negotiated complex legal documents, revised several commercial agreements, drafted pleadings, as well as appeared before courts.

Among other things, she has carried out due diligence exercises on companies in the insurance sector; provided company secretarial services to a company whose main object borders on the transformation of Africa’s public sector; and was part of the team that provided advisory services to an electricity distribution company in respect of its mass metering project. She is also an Assistant Editor with Kluwer Arbitration Blog.

Thaddeus Sory is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the African Arbitration Association, the Ghana Arbitration Centre, the Vice Chairman of the Appeals Board of the Confederation of African Football, a lecturer in Advocacy and Legal Ethics at the Ghana School of Law and the founding and managing partner of Sory@Law, a highly reputed law firm in Ghana.

Thaddeus has acted as arbitrator in numerous domestic arbitrations for major corporations in various commercial and financial disputes. He has tremendous experience in litigation and has been involved in arguably the biggest commercial, constitutional and administrative law disputes in the Republic of Ghana.

Thaddeus has been lawyer for the Ghana Football Association for almost a decade and has advised and acted as lawyer for State institutions in the Republic of Ghana like the Judicial Service of Ghana, the Electoral Commission, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, among others.

Thaddeus has among others been described as “a battle horse who knows all his procedures” and “an excellent litigation practitioner” and is well respected by his peers, a fact buttressed by his having represented the Ghana Bar Association in one of its law suits. He has extensive experience as an arbitrator and commercial litigator.

Etigwe is the Partner in charge of the Dispute Resolution Practice of Streamsowers & Kohn. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990 and is regarded as a fine litigator, whose reputation has been founded on intensive experience of the Nigerian court system at all levels. Etigwe was conferred with the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (the equivalent of the Queen’s Counsel UK), in 2010.

His litigation and arbitration experience span a wide range of areas including commercial disputes, international trade, oil and gas, telecommunications, company law, maritime and aviation, intellectual property, employment, personal injury, construction, trade disputes, insurance, taxation, banks and other financial institutions. He also has an established reputation as an authority on Nigerian aviation law.

Etigwe is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK and a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.

Mrinal leads Secretariat International’s Economic Damages and Valuation Practice in India with the focus on quantification of damages, claims and losses involving complex economic, financial and valuation issues in domestic and international arbitration matters including investment treaty arbitration cases. Mrinal is recognized as one of the leading expert witnesses in international arbitration by Who’s Who Legal’ s Arbitration 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 Lists and Thought Leader Arbitration Expert Witness 2021 (https://whoswholegal.com/mrinal-jain).

He is a Member of SIAC – Users Council and appointed on the Board of Society of Construction Law – India.

He is a member of AIAC Academy, Tutors Panel and appointed on the Steering Committee of Africa Energy Arbitration Forum, LACIAC.

He is also appointed as an Advisor to ENERAP (Energy Related Arbitration Practitioners) and Energy Disputes Arbitration Centre (EDAC), Turkey.

He serves on the Advisory Board of C.O.R.D (Centre for Online Resolution of Disputes) and Centre for Arbitration and Research, Maharashtra National Law University in India. He commenced his professional career with Ernst & Young in New York in 2007 and brings with him about 15 years of relevant experience.

He was awarded with All India Economics Merit Certificate in 2001 post which he graduated in Economics Honors from St. Stephen’s College (Delhi) in 2004 and pursued his major in Finance from Fordham University in New York in 2007.

Jorge A. Velázquez is the global founder of Energy Related Arbitration Practitioners
(ENERAP). It is an association born in December 2020, whose objective is to promote the
development of arbitration through the study of the characteristics, complexities and
challenges involved in commercial and investment arbitration proceedings related to the
energy sector. ENERAP has 57 chapters worldwide, and was nominated for the GAR Awards
in 2021 for best innovation.
Jorge focuses his practice on domestic and international commercial arbitration and has a
passion for investment arbitration. Regarding energy disputes, he has advised and
participated in cases involving gas pipelines, jack-up rigs, combined cycle power plants,
energy-efficient equipment, and a petrochemical plant.
He is currently an LL.M. candidate at the University of Cambridge, has previously interned
at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and worked as associate in two major
arbitration firms in Mexico.
Jorge holds a law degree with honors from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM), whose law school is regularly recognized by the QS World University Rankings as
the best law school in Ibero-America. During his studies he was awarded a full merit
scholarship to study one semester at the Universität Wien (Austria). He holds two diplomas
in Energy Law and is currently a candidate for a postgraduate degree in Energy Law at
UNAM.

Ali Adamjee

Dr. Babatunde Ajibade, SAN

Tunde Fagbohunlu, SAN

Wairimu Karanja

Sarah McKenzie

Ngo-Martins Okonmah

Ibukunoluwa Owa

Suzanne Rattray

Prof. Maxi Scherer

Kamal Shah

Titilope Sinmi-Adetona

Thaddeus Sory

Etigwe Uwa, SAN

Mrinal Jain

Jorge A. Velázquez

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