Business updates

Mrs. Aisha Abdallah, member of the MARC Court, was the guest speaker of MARC45's first 'Arbitration Spotlight' event held  on Thursday 17 August 2017 in the MCCI Conference room. The event was an informal Q&A breakfast meeting themed Insight into Africa and animated by members of the MARC45 Team, mainly about Aisha's career, her experience and advice to the young generation of aspiring arbitrators or arbitration lawyers. The discussions and exchanges spanned over various topics from simple career advice to the development of arbitration in Africa and ways African practitioners and institutions could join forces to develop a solid reputation for arbitration practice.

One short but powerful advice Aisha gave to the audience, in reply to a question about how to increase the chances of a young practitioner to work and succeed in international arbitration was 'to be thick-skinned, have self-belief and not be self-limiting'. The only limits are those we set to ourselves, she said.

Aisha will be part of a team of 13 international arbitration experts within the MARC Court, a major component of MARC's new governance structure. The main tasks of MARC Court will include prima facie decisions on MARC's jurisdiction to accept a case, decisions as to the number or appointment of arbitrators in the absence of agreement between the parties, decisions on challenges raised against arbitrators and decisions on other issues related to procedure.