Ilham is a Member of the Hogan Lovells’ International Arbitration team based out of the Dubai office. She holds law degrees from both common and civil law jurisdictions: she is a graduate of the Universite Catholique de Louvain and of SOAS, University of London.

Before joining Hogan Lovells in December 2016, Ilham worked in-house within the legal department (Middle East/Africa) of a major international corporation and then in the disputes department of a German-UK law firm based out of Dubai.

Over the years, Ilham has demonstrated a keen interest for the development of arbitration and the Rule of Law in Africa and has assisted a number of African Governments with the creation or improvement of their arbitration and trade legal frameworks. She was appointed in 2016 as Member of the International Arbitration Taskforce for the Federal Government of Somalia and was recently chosen to be part of Somalia’s Negotiating Team for its Accession to the WTO.  Ilham is also Head Coordinator of the IGAD-CCD Task Force for the creation of the Djibouti International Arbitration Centre (DJIAC).

Ilham keeps strong ties with her motherland – Morocco – where she is a Guest Lecturer in Introduction to International Litigation and Arbitration (Universite Internationale de Casablanca) and where she was also appointed as Head Coordinator by the Board of the Casablanca International Mediation and Arbitration Centre (CIMAC).