October 30, 2024
Time:
4 pm
Facebook Live
In the twenty-fourth episode, we're joined by Maria Farooq (BA-LL.B 2012), Visiting Assistant Professor at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law (SAHSOL), an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan, and Partner at Axis Law Chambers, a full-service law firm specialising in commercial dispute resolution (litigation and domestic/international arbitration) as well as non-contentious transactional and corporate advisory work. She was the first female to be promoted to a Partnership position at Axis Law and is the youngest Partner at the firm. Previously, she served as an Assistant Advocate General at the Office of Advocate General of the Punjab.
Maria earned her BA-LL.B degree from LUMS, graduating on the Dean’s Honour List. She then completed her LLM in Corporate/Commercial Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
As a Visiting Assistant Professor at SAHSOL, she teaches various core courses of the BA/LLB curriculum, including Family Law, Legal Practice and Legal Reasoning, and the Pakistan Legal System.
Maria’s practice focuses on litigation and arbitration with expertise in power sector dispute resolution. She is an accomplished international commercial arbitration lawyer with command over the institutional rules of ICC and LCIA. Maria has been involved in pre-arbitration, expert determinations, and domestic commercial arbitrations under the Arbitration Act, 1940. Regarding non-contentious work, Maria routinely leads teams advising multinational corporations, international financial institutions, and global telecommunications operators.
She also has extensive experience in issues related to public health and the protection of women and marginalised and disabled persons. In this regard, her work highlights include the filing of a constitutional petition challenging the archaic practice of virginity testing in sexual assault cases, which was accepted by the Lahore High Court in Sadaf Aziz v. Federation of Pakistan.
Maria has been recommended by legal directories, such as the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners for her corporate/transactional work. Maria is also the designated Pakistan expert regarding the Pakistan section on the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 (New York Convention) Guide website. Maria is also the only female lawyer from Pakistan to be recognised by Chambers & Partners in the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Asia-Pacific Awards 2020 in the Private Practice (Individual) Future Leader category. She has also been recognised as the Gender & Diversity Champion (Female) for Punjab by the 1st Women in Law Awards 2021, organised by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Women in Law Initiative Pakistan, Australian Aid, British High Commission, and Islamabad Group Development Pakistan.
Join the chat with Maria as she shares her journey from a law student to a pioneering advocate, breaking barriers and championing social causes.
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