Kama Shah was born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya and is passionate about conservation. He is the head of Stephenson Harwood's Africa and India groups and specialises in complex, cross-border international arbitration, litigation and fraud and asset recovery. He acts for governments, government entities, banks, private corporations and high net worth individuals in a range of matters including those relating to projects and infrastructure, joint ventures, banking and finance, shareholder arrangements, energy and a range of schemes commonly used to defraud individuals and corporations.
Kamal is highly ranked in the legal directories including Chambers & Partners (UK, Global and Asia-Pacific), The Legal 500 (UK and Asia-Pacific), and IFLR1000. "He is really a leader in Africa work." "For every problem I have, he always has the answer." (Chambers Global, Africa, 2022). He was named as a leading international arbitration practitioner in Who's Who Legal: Future Leaders 2017 - 2021 and has been recognised in Africa’s 30 Arbitration Powerlist 2020 and The Legal 500's Powerlists for arbitration and Africa for 2019. Kamal co-published the text of the ‘African Promise’, which seeks to tackle the under-representation of Africans on international arbitration tribunals. He is also the co-author of the leading text "Arbitration in Africa: A Review of Key Jurisdictions". Kamal was named joint winner of 'Mentor of the Year' at the African Arbitration Association Awards 2020.