Full Membership Training & Certification
The Advanced Qualifying Programme for Admission to Full Membership of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration and Mediation
Course Overview
The CIAM Full Member Programme (CIAM-MP) is the principal qualifying programme of the Institute — the intellectual centrepiece where the practitioner is born. Where the Associate level lays the foundation, the Full Member programme builds the structure: complex arbitration procedure, award drafting, mock hearings, international commercial arbitration, multi-sector mediation, case management, and the hardest ethical challenges the profession presents.
Successful completion leads to admission as a Member (MCIAM), the standard practising grade that entitles the holder to a CIAM Practising Licence, to use the MCIAM designation, and to accept appointments as an arbitrator, mediator, or ADR counsel in Nigeria and beyond. The standard of the programme is deliberately high.
Requirements
To be eligible for the Full Member Programme, an applicant must satisfy one of the following:
- Hold ACIAM (Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration and Mediation); or
- Hold an equivalent qualification from a recognised international ADR body, assessed and approved by the CIAM Professional Council; or
- Be a legal practitioner of not less than three years’ post-call experience with demonstrable ADR experience, assessed by the Professional Council on application.
Learning Outcome
On successful completion of this programme, candidates will be able to:
- Plan and manage the full lifecycle of a commercial arbitration from notice to award, draft and respond to sophisticated pleadings, apply rules of evidence, and handle interim and emergency measures.
- Design and manage complex, multi-party mediation processes, apply advanced techniques for high-conflict parties, and mediate across commercial, employment, family, and cross-border disputes.
- Apply the UNCITRAL Model Law and the New York Convention, navigate the principal institutional rules (ICC, LCIA, SIAC, LCA), and analyse jurisdictional and choice-of-law issues in international arbitration.
- Apply ADR principles to sector-specific disputes in oil and gas, construction, banking, maritime, labour, and technology, and identify the legal and technical issues each raises.
- Manage an ADR proceeding from appointment to closure — drafting procedural orders, managing the case file, and administering fees.
- Write with clarity, precision, and professional authority, and draft complete, reasoned arbitral awards, procedural orders, settlement agreements, and correspondence.