Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, OFR, SAN

Called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986 and enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria the same year, Chief Gadzama graduated as the best student in the Common Law Department at the University of Maiduguri, the first from that institution and from the entire North-East of Nigeria to attain the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (conferred 1998). He founded J-K Gadzama LLP in 1989, now one of Nigeria's foremost full-service law firms.

He holds a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration (DiplCArb) from Keble College, Oxford (2006), has undertaken advanced studies at IP3 (USA, 2009) and the London School of Economics (2010), and is a PhD candidate and part-time lecturer at Nile University of Nigeria. Appointed Notary Public in 1996, his practice spans litigation, arbitration, ADR, corporate advisory and regulatory matters.

As lead counsel he has represented INEC and major political parties in nationally decisive election petitions; advised multinationals, banks and government institutions; and served as consultant to the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the National Council on Privatization. He has been consistently ranked Band One by Chambers and Partners and is designated a National Leader in Arbitration by Who's Who Legal.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and a Chartered Arbitrator (C.Arb.), one of the very few in Nigeria, he served as Immediate Past Chairman of the CIArb Abuja Chapter and is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Janada International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (JICAM), established in Abuja in 2015. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (FICMC) and a member of the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

A Life Bencher and SEC-registered Capital Market Consultant, Chief Gadzama was appointed Chairman of the Mentoring Committee for Young Lawyers by the Chief Justice of Nigeria in 2021. He serves as Chancellor of Newgate University, Minna, and was honoured with the Thomas Sankara Pan African Leadership Prize for Excellence by the Youth Partnership for Africa's Development (YOUPAD) in 2024.