ABOUT US

Syed Akbar Hussain has been practicing law since 2010, and has been a promoter and advocate for ADR since 2016. His efforts have led to the founding of various legal startups and platforms within Pakistan including The ADR Initiative, The Justice Initiative and their subsidiaries.
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Akbar is the Founder and Team Lead of the SAZH-TAF Report and Roundtable on FDI. In partnership with The Asia Foundation, he assembled various experts from across the industries to advise and guide on the best course of action to take for improving the landscape of FDI in Pakistan. The Report has been published and available on the site. His suggestion of a Model Trust System will revolutionize Pakistan’s outlook and pave the way for the future. Further Roundtables are being held to address the various issues highlighted in the Report.
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Akbar has also been honoured by being appointed as the Architect & Team Lead of Pakistan’s Trade Dispute Resolution Regime. It started when he was solely appointed as Trade Expert, Institutional Expert, and Legal Expert by USAID on ADR. He thus is leading a team on Institutional Support to the Trade Dispute Resolution Organization on behalf of USAID (Investment Promotion Activity). After its successful completion he was again engaged, this time to design, draft and implement the entire operation of the TDRO and Commission to be formed under the Trade Dispute Resolution Act, 2022.

He has advised Multinationals, Government Ministries, the World Bank Group, The United Nations, The Power & Energy Sector, The Non-Profit Sector, the Private Sector, the Defence Sector, and various civil parties to resolutions. He has worked as a consultant in various projects from The Asia Foundation, USIP and other international organizations.
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​Akbar has been honoured with a nomination by the National Mediation Awards, UK [2020] for Innovation in Mediation. He had the pleasure of training judges in the Punjab Judicial Academy, along with the Lahore High Court, and the Ombudsman Association of Pakistan. He is amongst the few empaneled as an Arbitrator from Pakistan at the Shanghai Arbitration Commission, as of 2022. He has represented clients as counsel on the Singapore International Arbitration Center, been nominated as an arbitrator in various disputes, been involved in various expert mediation and has been at the forefront of encouraging ADR practice in Pakistan. He has judged international mediation, negotiation competition in Dubai, Brunei and various other jurisdictions. He has spoken and trained at the High Court Bar Associations. He has advised and worked with various development projects, most recently, with The Asia Foundation for establishing Pakistan’s first Roster of Mediators.
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Akbar is currently training various government departments, such as SECP, executive from multinational companies and students on ADR. He has been guiding his students to ADR and his peers towards a diversity of conflict management tools, and is confident that his generation will pave the way to better peace building tools for the future.
 
His work has been lauded and appreciated in all sectors of the globe. He continues to work on improving dispute resolution globally, and consulting on the sustainable, progressive future of the world.