Dorothy Ufot honoured as African arbitrator of the year
It was a celebration of excellence recently as one of Nigeria’s leading arbitrators, Dorothy Udeme Ufot, SAN won the keenly contested African Arbitrator of the year Award 2020, hosted on the sidelines of the annual East African International Arbitration Conference 2020, which took place virtually on Friday 28th August, 2020 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Africa Arbitration Awards aims to celebrate, recognise and honour outstanding practitioners and leaders in the Africa arbitration ecosystem. According to the award organisers, the Africa Arbitration Awards is an opportunity to shine a light on exemplary leadership and success in African Arbitration.
The organisers state that the “Africa Arbitration Awards forms part of our vision of building international arbitration capacity, expanding Africa’s networks as we promote, profile and celebrate Africa’s success in international arbitration.”
The Awards comprise of 5 categories where in each category, individual nominees must be of African nationality, and nominee organizations must have incorporated offices located in Africa. The categories are: (a) African Arbitrator of the year (over 40 years); (b) Young Arbitration practitioner of the year - under 40 years; (c) Leading case counsel team; (d) Leading Arbitration service provider, and; (e) Innovation in Arbitration.
This year’s awards received thousands of nominations from across the Arbitration community. A shortlist of three nominees per category was determined by highly respected, competent and independent judges who themselves are renowned arbitrators and heads of Africa’s leading international arbitration centres.
The 2020 Nominations Judges
were: Dipna Gunnoo, the Head of the MCCI Arbitration & Mediation Centre (MARC) at the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI); Prof. Ike Ehiribe, a fellow of CIARB, London, a Chartered Arbitrator, an accredited mediator and a professor of law at the Centre for International Legal Studies (CILS) in Salzburg, Christchurch Canterbury University SOAS and Queen Mary in the University of London; Dr. Dalia Hussein, the Deputy Director of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), an Adjunct Professor of Law at the American University in Cairo, and Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Zakazik University; Dr. Fidele
Masengo, the Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC); and Lawrence Ngugi, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Nairobi Centre for International Arbitration (NCIA), who previously served as Chief State Counsel (Head of Commercial Litigation & Arbitration).
The 2020 Nominations judges worked tirelessly to produce a shortlist of nominees, taking into account various criteria, including, demonstrated knowledge and experience in International Arbitration, use of innovation, teamwork and collaboration, observance of confidentiality, use of African centres, training and mentorship.
According to the organizers, thousands of votes were cast by the arbitration community globally and the winners reflect the best Africa has to offer in international arbitration expertise.
The 2020 Africa Arbitration Award winners were announced and celebrated in a virtual ceremony that was broadcast live on Zoom, Youtube and on the conference portal.
Nigeria’s Dorothy Udeme Ufot, SAN, defeated her counterparts Prof. Mohammed Abdel Wahab from Egypt and Dr. Jamsheed Peeroo from Mauritius to emerge as African Arbitrator of the Year 2020. Speaking to Arise TV in Nigeria, Dorothy said that the win came from a journey of several years of involvement in complex investment and commercial disputes, with the international arbitration community watching you.
Dorothy Udeme Ufot, SAN, FCIARB(UK), Chartered Arbitrator is the founding partner of Dorothy Ufot & Co, a leading law firm in Nigeria since 1994 where she heads the International arbitration and litigation departments of the firm.
In 2009, Dorothy was elevated to the prestigious rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) (equivalent to the English Queen’s Counsel), in recognition of her vast work in commercial litigation.
She is a former member of the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Paris (2006 – 2018), and a member of the Court of Arbitration of the Casablanca International Mediation and Arbitration Centre Morocco, since 2016.
Dorothy is a former vice chair of the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). She is a former global vice president of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, and is currently a member of the council of the ICC Institute of World Business Law and vice chair of the arbitration and ADR Commission of ICC Nigeria and the Treasurer of ICC’S Nigeria committee.
Dorothy is on the panel of arbitrators for the American Arbitration Association (Aaa)/international Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Korea Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) International, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIARB), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre(siac), the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (now AIAC), the Lagos Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, the Energy Arbitrators List and the International Dispute Resolution Specialists (the IDR Group).
Dorothy has extensive experience as an arbitrator in adhoc and institutional arbitration (UNCITRAL, ICC, SCC, ICSID, LCIA, DIAC, AAA/ICDR and RCICAL).
She is a member and past director of Arbitral Women. A past board member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Chevron Oil Nigeria PLC and MRS Oil Nigeria PLC, Dorothy is currently a Non-executive Director of Dangote Cement PLC, the first female to be so appointed. She also serves on the board of Dangote Cement Ethiopia, SO&U Ltd and the Nigerian Prize for Leadership.
A member of the advisory board of the Journal of International Arbitration, Dorothy is recognized in the GAR’S International Who’s Who of Commercial Arbitration practitioners annually since 2009-2020 as one of the world’s experts in the field of International Commercial Arbitration.