Africa Day at DAW: Arbitration & Africa’s Growth Sectors. Shaping the Future of Energy, Infrastructure, and Digital Transformation.”

Download the full programme here.

10:00 – 15:00 with lunch from 1400 – 1500

Venue: Ritz-Carlton DIFC Centre Cut Room

There will be a keynote and three panels:

• Fintech and Africa: Prospects for Growth and Potential Pitfalls
• Renewables in Africa: What Does the Future Hold? Challenges and Opportunities
• Data Centres: The New Frontier for Africa?  Practical Considerations Shaping Sector Growth

Further details on panellists to follow, please register to attend here.

The fourth in the COMBAR, Chancery Bar Association and TECBAR series of online events for aspiring pupils will be focussing on the pupillage year and early years of commercial, construction and chancery practice. Hear from a panel of very recent tenants about how to prepare for the pupillage year, what to expect and how to best approach it as well as what the early years in practice at the commercial, construction and chancery bar are like.

Panellists:

Caitlin Moore – Atkin Chambers

Dominic Li  – One Essex Court

Viktoria Winzer – 3 Verulam Buildings

Tim Foot  – Maitland Chambers

This online event will start at 6pm

The event will run for one hour until 7pm with a Q&A chat function enabling questions to be taken by the panellists.

A ZOOM link will be circulated to participants on the day.

please register your place here.

The COMBAR Annual Lecture 2025 will be delivered by:

Professor Sarah Green

on Thursday 6th November at 5.30pm, in Gray’s Inn Hall

on the subject of

“The Distinctiveness of Digital Asset Disputes”

Registration is now closed

The lecture is open to COMBAR Members and invited SBA Members.  Pupils welcome.

There will be a drinks reception following the lecture.

Professor Sarah Green was Law Commissioner for Common and Commercial Law at the Law Commission of England and Wales from 2020 to 2024. Her law reform work included the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, Advice to Government on Smart Contracts, updating the Arbitration Act 1996, scoping reforms to the law on Intermediated Securities, and drafting guidance and a bill to ensure that English law is well suited to accommodate Digital Assets.

In 2023, she won both the International Chamber of Commerce’s Award for the Individual Who Has Made the Greatest Contribution to the Digitalisation of Trade and the Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Legal Technology Awards. In 2022, she was placed on the Women in Fintech Power List and on Bloomberg’s “Who to Watch” Crypto List.

Sarah is now an Independent Arbitrator and Mediator (specialising in Crypto and Blockchain Disputes) at Newmans Row, Professor of Private Law at the University of Bristol, a member of T3i Partner Network and a consultant to D2 Legal Technology. Sarah sits on the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, the International Jurisdiction Taskforce, the Digital Commonwealth, LegalUK, and the Trade Digitalisation Taskforce, as well as being an advisor to the APPG on Blockchain Technologies.

She was previously Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford and a software consultant at Accenture. She has written books and articles on subjects such as blockchain, smart contracts, digital assets and intermediated securities, and her work has been cited extensively in Parliament, across several jurisdictions in appellate courts, and in US Congress.

Mrs Justice Cockerill, who is due to become Deputy Head of Civil Justice in November, will speak on the “access to public domain documents” pilot which comes into force shortly in the Commercial Court, London Circuit Commercial Court and Financial List.

HHJ Pelling KC, who is the Judge in Charge of the London Circuit Commercial Court, will cover the new procedure for arbitration claims and developments in that court.

Chancery Master Kaye will address the simplified costs budgeting pilot in the Business and Property Courts which applies to Part 7 multi track claims issued from 6 April 2025 to 6 April 2028.

The talk will take place in the International Arbitration Centre, from 5:30pm to 6.30pm.

Address: 190 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AG

The event will be hybrid and recorded.

The event is open to COMBAR members only and pupils are welcome.

In person registration is now closed.  A link will be circulated closer to the event for those joining online.  If you wish to be added to the reserve list, please email admin@combar.com

Laurence Emmett KC will give a talk followed by questions.

The lecture will take place in the International Arbitration Centre, from 5:30pm to 6.30pm.

Address: 190 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AG

The event will be hybrid and recorded.

The event is open to COMBAR members only and pupils are welcome.

Please register here for in-person attendance.  Please do not register if joining online, a link will be circulated closer to the event.

COMBAR Africa is proud to be supporting the East Africa International Arbitration Conference in Abuja, Nigeria.

COMBAR Africa is sponsoring the cocktail reception which is taking place on 25th September 2025

6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

COMBAR Africa’s Abdul Jinadu, Nania Owusu-Ankomah Sackey (HOM) and Teni Onabanjo will be speaking at the conference; and

Nania and Andrew Onslow KC will be participating in an associated LCIA training programme.

COMBAR Members are welcome to attend.

More information and details, including how to register may be found here

COMBAR Africa is pleased to support the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) Training series

31 July 2025 ARBITRATION TRAINING SESSION 1
Efficiency in Arbitration – Balancing Fairness, Time, and Cost

Presented in collaboration with
Pinsent Masons, HKA, CIArb (South Africa)

17H00 – 18H30 (GMT+2)  followed by a cocktail reception for those attending in person

Coctail Reception venue: AFSA 1st Floor, Grindrod Tower, 8a Protea Place, Sandton.

Click here for online registration

The lecture will take place in the Inner Temple Lecture Theatre at 5.45pm, followed by Q&A, and then drinks and canapés.

The lecture is open to all members of COMBAR, ChBA and TECBAR.

Pupils are welcome.

Please register here for attendance (in-person only for this event) and to upload a question. A recording will be available after the event.

Lord Sumption will give a talk followed by questions.

The AALS/COMBAR lecture will take place at Freshfields from 6:00pm to 7.30pm with drinks and canapés.  Full details may be found in the flyer.

Please register here for in-person attendance.

As part of  London International Disputes Week (LIDW) 2025 the COMBAR Africa Committee welcomes you to a seminar and reception to hear and participate in a discussion by a panel of experts about AI, its impact on the future of practice of arbitration in Africa and what Africa can learn from the UK experience.

The event will run from 5pm to 6.30pm with drinks to follow in the Drawing Room at Inner Temple.

Panellists

Keynote: The Honourable Mr Justice Waksman

The Honourable Mrs Justice Joanna Smith

Professor Emilia Onyema – The University of London School of Oriental and African Studies

Sena Gbedemah – Ankura

David Quest KC – 3 Verulam Buildings

Moderator:  Abdul Jinadu, Keating Chambers

Please register here.