Activation Energy in Acid/Base reactions
Proton transfer, especially in aqueous media, has an activation barrier that is easily surmounted at room temperature or higher.  Such reactions are said to be diffusion controlled (the reaction happens at the rate of proton diffusion through the media) or spontaneous.  In such cases thermodynamics will control the process.   That said, I'm sure there are cases where the base the proton is transferring to, is, for example, surrounded by bulky ligands substantially increasing the activation energy for the process.