Zahra Al-Rikabi

Brick Court

After a string of cases came to a natural end in 2019, the next 12 months will give Brick Court Chambers’ Zahra Al-Rikabi a chance to start afresh, as she seeks to shape her practice in her own vision with a particular focus on international work.

Starting over is not new ground for Al-Rikabi, who wrote in The Lawyer’s Women Against Adversity series about her experience as an Iraqi refugee arriving in the UK, aged nine.

Al-Rikabi has already taken a proactive approach in seeking out her own cases since her call eight years ago, notably rejecting junior roles in major cases to keep her diary free. While she admits this was a “risky and scary” approach, Al-Rikabi has successfully carved out a niche practice as the only Arabic speaker at Brick Court. This had led to a large portion of work from the Middle East being funnelled through her, such as an investment treaty arbitration concerning Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera set for later in 2020. Other strands to her practice include public international law and commercial matters, both of which include a blend of litigation and arbitration.