i.
Commercial arbitration
Long-form joint ventures, distribution and supply agreements, post-M&A indemnity claims. Counsel of record under LCIA, ICC, NCIA, SIAC, and ad-hoc UNCITRAL rules.
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Lead · H. Pemberton
Pemberton & Lyle is an international arbitration practice based in Nairobi. We act for sovereign clients, listed multinationals, and family enterprises in disputes that cross borders, languages, and forums — the matters that cannot be lost on a technicality, and rarely should be lost on the merits.
"Counsel-led, not pyramid-led. Every brief signed by the advocate who will argue it."
Pemberton & Lyle was founded in 2014 by two former counsel of an English silk's chambers who returned to Nairobi convinced that the East African region deserved an arbitration practice of London weight, anchored in Africa rather than imported into it. Eleven years on, the practice is what we wanted it to be: small, slow to expand, almost wholly referral, and entirely dedicated to international arbitration and cross-border litigation.
Arbitration is, in the end, advocacy under unfamiliar rules in an unfamiliar room. We have built the practice deliberately wide — across rules and seats — so that the room is never the part our clients have to learn.
Long-form joint ventures, distribution and supply agreements, post-M&A indemnity claims. Counsel of record under LCIA, ICC, NCIA, SIAC, and ad-hoc UNCITRAL rules.
ICSID and UNCITRAL claims under bilateral investment treaties. Representation of both investors and state respondents — never in the same proceeding, never in the same decade.
FIDIC contract disputes, energy concessions, large-scale public-private infrastructure. We have appeared on every side: contractor, employer, financier.
Recognition and enforcement of foreign awards under the New York Convention. Setting-aside applications before the High Court of Kenya and the Court of Appeal.
Parallel proceedings, anti-suit injunctions, jurisdictional challenges. The work that decides where the matter is fought, before deciding what is fought.
Our senior counsel sit as arbitrators in commercial and investor–state matters. We accept appointments only where there is no conflict with our active book.
Every brief is led by senior counsel of fifteen years' standing or more. Junior counsel research and draft; they do not appear unled. The work is divided this way because the seat is always unfamiliar; the advocate should not be.
Counsel of record in 41 LCIA proceedings. Former tenant, Essex Court Chambers. Author, Arbitration in East Africa (Hart, 2022).
Counsel in 14 ICSID proceedings. Sits as arbitrator under LCIA and ICC rules. Former clerk, ICJ.
FIDIC specialist. Lead in 22 construction arbitrations across the EAC. Member, ICC Court since 2019.
Enforcement and setting-aside specialist. Argued the leading 2023 New York Convention case in the Kenyan Court of Appeal.
Five further junior counsel and three pupils complete the chambers. Open the directory →
Most of our proceedings sit under arbitration confidentiality and will not appear on any list, ever. The matters below have been redacted with client consent or have entered the public record through court enforcement.
"The benchmark for international arbitration counsel in East Africa."
"Pemberton's appellate practice is something other firms quietly study."
"A small chambers with an outsized shadow at the LCIA."
"East Africa's most quietly formidable practice."
Our counsel publish, sparingly. The pieces below are reproduced from the journals in which they first appeared; the more substantial works are listed in the monograph register.
A note on the post-Halliburton tribunal-disclosure landscape, and its reception in Kenyan setting-aside proceedings.
A field note on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area's nascent dispute architecture and what it asks of counsel.
Inaugural Strathmore Arbitration Lecture, delivered by A. Lyle, SC.
All enquiries are reviewed by a senior member of chambers within one working day, after a conflicts check. Please share no privileged detail until we have written to confirm there is no conflict of interest with our existing book.
Selectively. Capacity is the binding constraint. We accept matters where our involvement is likely to be determinative of the outcome — and decline, gently, where our presence would be one of decoration.
Yes, where there is no conflict with our active book. Our senior counsel are appointed regularly under LCIA, ICC, and NCIA rules, and we accept appointments by party, by tribunal, and by appointing authority alike.
All three are available. Most engagements settle into phased fixed fees with a hearings cap. Success-aligned arrangements are entered into only at the client's instruction and after a written variation of the engagement letter.
Routinely. Our senior counsel hold rights of audience or are admitted ad hoc in London, Paris, Mauritius, Singapore, and several jurisdictions in between. For local-law expertise we co-counsel with chambers we have worked with for years.