CHIEF JOE KYARI GADZAMA

Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama is the founding Principal Partner of J-K Gadzama LLP. He is a seasoned Litigation and Commercial Lawyer, an internationally respected Arbitrator, a Scholar, an Author, a Life Bencher, and a Publisher. Born on the 28th day of November 1961 in Mubi, Adamawa State, he hails from Lassa in Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. He was admitted into the Nigerian Bar in 1986 and the Bar of England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn) (UK) in 2008. He was elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1998 (the first among the 1986 set of the Nigerian Law School).

Chief Gadzama has been recognized by Intercontinental Finance Magazine (ICFM) in 2015 as one of the 500 best lawyers in the world. His expert opinion, on the nature of damages recoverable under Nigerian law by family members of a victim of a fatal plane crash, was sought in Toulouse, France, before the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Toulouse in 2015.

Chief Gadzama has acted as Board Member, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC); Chairman, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Abuja Chapter; Member, Panel of International Arbitrators, Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC); ICC’s Africa Commission; Pioneer Chairman, Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL); Member, International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA); Member, American Arbitration Association (AAA); Member, Governing Council of the Dispute Resolution Center of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Member, Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, England (CEDR); Member, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Janada International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (JICAM), a frontline arbitration and ADR center in Abuja. He was recently appointed as Chairman, Advisory Council, Association of Environmental Lawyers of Nigeria.

Chief Gadzama is a certified Mediator and a Negotiator. He has equally presented papers at various conferences on arbitration and also was listed in Who is Who Nigeria 2016 and 2019 as an arbitration expert.

He holds an LL.B from the prestigious University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria (1985); a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration, Keble College, Oxford University, UK (2006). He also has certificates from the Institute of Public-Private Partnership (IP3) Arlington, Washington DC, USA on PPP, and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on Regulation (2010). He is a Chartered Arbitrator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb); Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS); and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC). He is also a recipient of the Nigerian National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR), in recognition of his meritorious service to the nation.

Chief Gadzama is registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in Abuja as a Capital Market Consultant and also a member of, Capital Market Solicitors’ Association.