CHIEF JOE-KYARI GADZAMA, SAN

Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, OFR, MFR, SAN, FNIALS, FICMC, DiplCIArb, FCIArb. Chartered Arbitrator.

 (Of Lincolns Inn, Barrister/Life Bencher/Certified Mediator/Regulatory Consultant)

Shettima Ilmuye of Borno; Sardauna of Uba; & Bobajiro of Akure Kingdom

Founding Principal Partner, J-K Gadzama LLP

Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN (‘J-K’) was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986, after undergoing his undergraduate studies at the University of Maiduguri where he emerged as the best graduating student in the Common Law Department with a Second Class Upper Division (2:1). He obtained a diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from Keble College, Oxford University, UK in 2006. Shortly after, he graduated from the Institute for Public-Private Partnerships (IP3), Allington, USA in 2009 before completing a short course on regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2010.

He was elevated to the worthy rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1998. He has been recognized by the Intercontinental Finance Magazine (ICFM) in 2015 as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the world.

He is a certified teacher and researcher pursuing Post Graduate (PG) in Energy and Natural Resources Law at a renowned international university in Nigeria, with specialties in Oil & Gas, Electricity, Environmental, and Solid Mineral Law.

J-K is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and one of the few Chartered Arbitrators in Nigeria. He has been featured on “Who’s Who Legal” as an Arbitration Expert and is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Janada International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (JICAM).

J-K is a Life Bencher, Nigerian Body of Benchers; a body consisting of legal practitioners of the highest distinction saddled with the responsibility for the formal call to Bar of persons seeking to become legal practitioners as well as the disciplining of erring practitioners. As a result of his commitment to developing young lawyers in the profession, he was appointed in 2021 by the Chief Justice of Nigeria as the Chairman of the Mentoring Committee for Young Lawyers of the Body of Benchers.

J-K is a successful family man with six children and two grandchildren. Two of his children have been called to the Nigerian Bar. He enjoys reading, travelling, golfing, hiking, and swimming in his spare time.