International Lawyers for Africa Directors
Tim Taylor QC
Tim Taylor is a solicitor advocate. He has specialised in complex Commercial Dispute Resolution throughout his professional career, since qualifying with Herbert Smith in 1980.
The majority of his work entails an international element and embraces litigation as well as arbitration and mediation.
Tim headed SJ Berwin's Litigation Department from 1997 to 2004 when he began to spearhead the firm's International Arbitration Practice. The Department is rated by Chambers Legal Directory 2003 as one of the top two of a list of thirty leading litigation practices in the UK with forty lawyers or less.
Tim is recognised as a leader in the field of the Dispute Resolution in both the Legal Business, Legal Experts Directory and the Chambers Global Directory of the Worlds Leading Lawyers. He is variously described in Chambers and the Legal 500 as "superb", "a marvellous and mercurial figure", and as having "an extraordinary mind which allows him to bring something different to any piece of litigation"
Nankunda Katangaza
Nankunda Katangaza is the Policy Manager with responsibility for Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in the International Department of the Law Society of England and Wales. The International department lobbies on international practice rights issues, promotes English and Welsh legal services abroad, implements international development projects in co-operation with sister organisations abroad and promotes international human rights in the UK and overseas. In this role, Nankunda has managed and implemented programmes in partnership with bar associations and governments of various countries in Africa and the Middle East including Nigeria, Lebanon, Uganda, Libya and Lesotho.
Nankunda joined the Law Society in January 1999. Prior to that, she worked in the non-government sector and local government in the UK and Canada focusing on gender and development and HIV/AIDS. Her educational background is in Politics and International Development, with an MA in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and BA Hons. in Politics and International Development from the University of Toronto.
Mark Huleatt-James
Mark is a retired partner from the London office of Lovells. For two and a half years he was a resident partner in their Paris office, where he was admitted to practise as an avocat. Mark has extensive experience in international litigation and arbitration and has authored books and articles on both. Mark was also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. After returning to London, Mark practised principally in the product liability field, defending manufacturers in large scale actions, and specialising in cases with an international dimension.
Segun Osuntokun
Segun is a partner in the City firm of Berwin Leighton Paisner. He is an experienced commercial lawyer who specialises in the resolution of disputes relating to or arising out of the banking and financial services industry and financial products. He has acted for many of the leading global financial institutions and been seconded to the FSA. His practice has over the years become increasingly focused on sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in particular and his clients have included the Federal Government of Nigeria, the African Development Bank, Lagos State Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Segun is ranked as a leading individual for Banking Litigation by Chambers (2009 issue) in which he is described as "...an accomplished and impressive litigator..." and an 'innovative problem solver', with a 'knack for understanding and fulfilling client expectations'. The 2009 edition of Legal 500 describes him as having an 'intimate familiarity with the legal environment across Africa'.
Segun read Economics at the University of London and Law at Oxford University.
Clarissa O'Callaghan
Clarissa O'Callaghan is head of pro bono at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Clarissa is a qualified solicitor having practiced in the Freshfield's dispute resolution department. Clarissa was instrumental in developing the firm's current pro bono activities in Africa and has helped run a legal training project in Kenya. Clarissa also sits on the executive committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association.
Paul Crook
Paul Crook is Global Head of Corporate Know-how and Training at Allen & Overy LLP. He was a partner in the corporate department of Allen & Overy from 1984-2003. He obtained an MA and an LL.M from Cambridge University, joined the firm in 1976 and qualified as a solicitor in 1978. From 1980 to 1982 he was seconded as an in-house lawyer to the London Stock Exchange. He spent three years leading Allen & Overy's corporate practice in the firm's Paris office and was admitted to the French Bar in 1994.
He has considerable experience in a wide range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (public and private, domestic and cross-border), international joint ventures, equity issues and leveraged and management buyouts.
Paul is a member of the Advisory Board of Gore-Browne on Companies and is a member of the Law Society Company Law Committee.
Toyin Ojo
Toyin Ojo is an associate in SJ Berwin LLP's International Arbitration group. She is also the firm's Corporate Responsibility Manager as well as the coordinating director of the ILFA programme.Toyin has worked in private practice, industry (predominantly for large insurance companies) and Central Government. Toyin's main practice areas are international commercial arbitration and insurance litigation.
Anna Gardner
Legal Director of Global Emerging Markets, Hewlett Packard
Kem Ihenacho
Kem is a Partner at Clifford Chance based in London who joined the firm in 1999. Kem is a Nigerian national specialising in private equity, international mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and is a lead partner in the firm's Africa Group. Kem sits on the firm's global pro bono committee and is a member of the Legal and Regulatory Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association