Hauwa Yakubu

Senior Fellow – Nigeria

Hauwa Yakubu is a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Head of Division (Abuja) and Assistant Chief Registrar at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

About Hauwa Yakubu

Hauwa Yakubu is a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Head of Division (Abuja) and Assistant Chief Registrar at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

A pioneer mediator in Nigeria, she is the immediate past Deputy Director of the National Industrial Court (NICN) Alternative Dispute Centre, the first court-connected mediation center in the Nigerian judiciary. The NICN ADR Centre was established to resolve disputes arising from labor, employment, workplace, and industrial relations matters between parties by using the process of mediation and/or conciliation. The NICN ADR Centre uses mediation and/or conciliation techniques to assist parties in resolving their disputes in a speedy, efficient, and inexpensive process.

Ms. Yakubu is a certified mediator with practical experience mediating cases at a private law firm, where she worked in litigation for over five years. She brings her in-depth knowledge of labor law disputes and administrative matters to her mediations. She is also a seasoned mediation trainer.

Litigation Practice

As a caseworker and trainee solicitor in the firm of G.D Ayanbanji & Co., Ms. Yakubu gained extensive knowledge in general litigation practice, as well as in the following legal areas:

Legal research,
Reporting and advocacy in both lower and superior courts
Law office management
Administrative law
Civil litigation
Commercial and company law
Human rights, and labor law

Mediation Practice

Since accreditation in 2014, Ms. Yakubu has served as a mediator at the NICN ADR Center. Her mediation experience includes matters in the following areas:

Labor law, including: matters arising from employment, conditions of service, health, safety, and welfare of employee/worker
Industrial actions – disputes arising from strikes, lockouts, picketing, etc.
Wages, such as: disputes arising from payment or non-payment of wages, pension, gratuities, allowances, benefits, and other entitlement of any employee or worker
Unfair labor practices or international best practices in labor matters
Discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace
Trade Union disputes and collective bargaining

ADR Achievements and Training

As a pioneer mediator and deputy director of the NICN ADR Centre, Ms. Yakubu was responsible for establishing and overseeing the effective operations and administration of the NICN ADR Centre nationwide.
Ms. Yakubu was nominated to participate in the Local Organizing Committee of the “Global Pound Conference Series” in Africa 2016-2017 (A program organized by the International Mediation Institute, Geneva (IMI) and Negotiation and Conflict Management Group (NCMG)). The conference aimed at provoking discussion and policy regarding the future of dispute resolution in Nigeria and improving access to justice across 38 cities and 29 countries.
Awarded a Weinstein JAMS International Fellowship (2014)
CEDR accredited Mediator with the Center for Effective Dispute Resolution, London
Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK)
Trainer and a Fellow with the Institute of Chartered Mediator and Conciliators, Nigeria
Extensive advanced mediation training at UC Hastings School of the Law, Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, “Designing, Developing and Implementing Court-Connected ADR Programs” (2014)
Advanced Arbitration and Mediation from the International Law Institute (ILI), Washington DC (2014)
Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law (2014)

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

Ms. Yakubu is a mediation trainer with the NICN ADR Centre and also with the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, and has trained lawyers and non-lawyers in the skill of mediation.
She has provided basic mediation training and employment mediation to lawyers in the courts and has participated in various negotiation workshops.

Publications and Education

Publications

“A Critical Appraisal of the Prison System in Nigeria” A project submitted to the Department of Private Law, University of Maiduguri

Educational Qualifications

Master of Laws (LL.M), University of South Wales (In process)
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B), University of Maiduguri, Nigeria (2003)
Barrister at Laws, Nigerian Law School (2000)