Leyou Tameru

Partner

Head of International Arbitration

Addis Ababa

Phone: +251 911 529 517

Email: leyou@tazalegal.com

Areas of Expertise

International Arbitration

Investment & Treaty Arbitration

Commercial & Construction Disputes

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Africa-Focused Dispute Strategy & Advisory

Leyou leads Taza Legal’s International Arbitration Practice and is recognised as one of Africa’s leading arbitration practitioners. She acts as arbitrator and counsel in complex commercial and investment disputes across Africa and internationally, with particular experience in construction, infrastructure, energy and cross-border investment matters. Leyou also advises governments, state-owned entities, investors and international organisations on arbitration strategy, investment protection and dispute resolution.

Highlights Include;

Acting as Presiding Arbitrator in a construction dispute administered by the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC).

Acting as Co-Arbitrator in an ICC arbitration concerning the construction of an energy plant involving a state-owned entity.

Acting as Co-Arbitrator in ICC-administered contract and construction disputes involving African states.

Advising an Ethiopian state-owned entity in a major turnkey project dispute, for which the team received acknowledgement from the Minister of Justice.

Acting as counsel in a cross-border construction and renewable energy dispute between French and African private entities administered by the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Centre.

Advising on dispute strategy concerning the shipment and delivery of fertiliser between an African supplier and an Ethiopian state-owned entity.

Providing Ethiopian law advice to international counsel acting for an investor in a renewable energy construction arbitration against a state-owned entity.

Advising the African Union on amendments to the ICSID Arbitration Rules.

Training more than 150 Ethiopian Federal High Court and Supreme Court judges on the implementation of the New York Convention.

Acting as lead negotiator on a multi-billion-dollar clean energy project involving a private investor and the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

Leyou is recognised as one of Africa’s leading voices in international arbitration. She was named among Global Arbitration Review’s 45 Under 45 Global Leaders in International Arbitration (2023), recognised among Africa’s 30 Most Promising Arbitration Practitioners by the Africa Arbitration Academy (2022), and previously listed among Africa’s Most Promising Young Arbitration Practitioners by the Association of Young Arbitrators (2020).

She served as Ethiopia’s first Court Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and sits on the arbitrator panels of leading institutions including the LCIA, CRCICA, AFSA, MARC and the Shanghai Arbitration Commission.

Leyou Tameru

Areas of Expertise

Highlights Include;

Protective. Enduring. Trusted. Strategic.