Dr. Abir Haddad

Table Captain

Dr. iur. Abir Haddad

Legal Futurist, founder and director of the Institute for Legal Transformation,
Strategic advisor to the UN Climate Secretariat and lecturer at the University of Cologne

Dr. Abir Haddad is the founder and director of the Institute for Legal Transformation, a Capital 40 under 40 honoree, an alumna of the Max Planck Society, and teaches modern law of Arab states at the Institute for Private International Law at the University of Cologne.

Previously, she led the Law and Governance department at Resilience Frontiers, a forward-looking project of the United Nations Climate Secretariat, where she developed transformative legal solutions to address future challenges posed by climate change and exponential technologies. She now serves as a strategic advisor to the project.

Through the Institute for Legal Transformation, she applies her methodology “7 Steps to Legal Transformation” to other areas of disruptive change and researches the law of the future, with a thematic focus on legal adaptations to the climate crisis and exponential technologies with disruptive impacts on societies. Alongside her diverse team, she develops innovative legal concepts based on scientific findings and supports companies in navigating legal gray areas and developing new self-regulatory concepts through consulting, workshops, and conferences. The Institute also provides training for the judiciary, such as at the Dubai Judicial Institute.

Born and raised in Iraq, Dr. Haddad emigrated to Germany and lived in several countries. She completed her high school education and studied law in Germany, specializing in international law. She earned her doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Cologne with research stays in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Bahrain, and Japan.

Dr. Haddad is a renowned legal scholar and frequent speaker, reviewer, and editor for research journals. She is the founder and leader of a research group on legal practice in Arab countries and a member of the Islamic Finance Expert Group.

Along with other lawyers, Dr. Haddad founded the network of multicultural lawyers, which provides a platform for German lawyers with an immigration background in their family history.

In the course of her academic career, she was selected as one of 20 female scientists worldwide for the Female Science Track 2022 of the Falling Walls Foundation and won the wildcard for the Women in Leadership program. She is a founding and faculty member of the European Club for Leaders and Sustainable Innovation program.

In her free time, Dr. Haddad enjoys spending time with indigenous peoples and organizing retreats in the desert.