Professional notice
Home to the president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
| People in Who’s Who Legal | 2 |
|---|---|
| Pending cases as counsel | 4 |
| Value of pending counsel work | US$1.2 billion |
| Treaty cases | 0 |
| Current arbitrator appointments | 39 (of which 24 are as sole or chair) |
| Lawyers sitting as arbitrator | 2 |
Nayla Comair-Obeid founded the firm in Beirut in 1987. Both firm and founder have since played a significant role in the development of arbitration in Lebanon and the Middle East.
A professor at the Lebanese Judicial Institute and Lebanese University and visiting professor at the University of Paris (Panthéon-Assas), Comair-Obeid has trained lawyers and judges across the Middle East about arbitration. Indeed, she claims responsibility for “an arbitration awareness campaign” across the country and the rise in undergraduate conferences devoted to the field.
She has also played an active role in the international arbitration community, severing on the board of Cairo’s arbitration centre and as vice chair of the IBA arbitration committee. She became president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2017, becoming the first woman and first person from the Middle East to hold the position.
Given Comair-Obeid’s reputation, it is no surprise that when Lebanon began to amend its arbitration law in the early 2000s, the firm was retained to prepare the first draft; nor is it surprising that the IBA and ICC International Court of Arbitration have relied on it for the Arabic version of its guidelines and rules.
The arrival of partner Ziad Obeid (Nayla’s son) in 2011 boosted the firm’s capability in the field of construction disputes. Ziad trained initially as a civil engineer and has worked for a major construction company in France and an engineering company in Canada. He has also practised at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris and Dubai.
The firm doesn’t like to name clients but the list is thought to include a number of Middle Eastern states and government entities as well as large companies from the region, in addition to some well-known international oil companies.
Recently it’s been representing a Qatari-Saudi engineering contractor in a U$53 million dispute with a German multinational over a power utility, which was heard under ICC rules in Geneva; and acted in another ICC case against a German-Italian conglomerate over a steel bar mill in Qatar.
Elsewhere it’s acted for a multinational on a dispute over a plant in Syria, and has advised on worldwide injunctions in support of a multibillion-dollar LCIA case. In the courts, it’s acted for a major Middle Eastern airline in annulment proceedings.
The firm has a track record of co-counselling with international firms – including Freshfields – and acting in Lebanese court proceedings relating to international arbitration. For example, it acted for Turkey in an action relating to the US$10 billion Libananco case at ICSID (in which Freshfields was counsel for the state).
Comair-Obeid also appears as an expert on Middle Eastern law in international arbitrations – for instance, on Qatari law in an ad hoc dispute between an international security consultancy firm and its local partner.
Comair-Obeid is also well known for her arbitrator work. She issued a US$23 million award in a construction dispute between a Bahraini contractor and a UAE family that was enforced in London in 2012. She is a member of the ICSID panel of arbitrators.
Recent events
The firm says it has been advising several major oil companies on investment structuring and treaty protections in Lebanon, as well as on the legislative framework for the country’s oil and gas sector.
Comair-Obeid also taught a new diploma in Islamic banking and finance at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London.
Zeina Obeid joined the firm as a principal associate in 2016 after defending her doctoral thesis in Paris on the set-aside of awards in Arab countries.
Established in 1987, Obeid Law Firm is a full service law firm servicing the MENA region from its headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. The firm is widely recognised as one of the leading law firms in Lebanon and the Middle East; enjoying widespread recognition among local and international legal practitioners.
Recognised for its commitment to excellence and its expertise in Middle Eastern legislations, the firm has established a first-class international arbitration practice acting as parties’ counsel, arbitrator or expert. The firm also advises clients at the pre and post arbitration stages - from drafting arbitration agreements to enforcing arbitral awards, foreign courts decisions and asset preservation orders.
Over the past few decades, Obeid Law Firm has been involved in some of the largest arbitration cases in the Middle East and has actively participated in various legal reforms in Lebanon and the Gulf region.
Led by Professor Nayla Comair-Obeid, the firm’s arbitration team combines international best practice with local know-how. With acknowledged arbitration specialists engaged in some of the most significant English, French and Arabic-language arbitrations in the MENA region, the firm’s arbitration practice offers unparalleled regional expertise and wide-ranging capabilities.
Known for its diverse arbitration portfolio, the firm has been engaged in matters conducted under various arbitration rules and subject to a wide range of applicable laws, including: Syrian Law, UAE Law, Egyptian Law, Qatari Law, Jordanian Law, Kuwaiti Law, Lebanese Law, Tunisian Law, French Law, Swiss Law, Italian Law, English Law and US Law.
Members of the firm have also been called to give expert evidence on aspects of Middle Eastern legislations before arbitral tribunals and foreign courts including the Grand Courts of the Cayman Islands and the English High Court. Numerous books and publications have been authored by the firm members in Arabic, French and English on international contracts and international arbitration, including the reference book on “The Law of Business contracts in the Arab Middle East”.
Obeid Law Firm is a drafting contributor to the “GAR Reference” project and the “Guide to National Rules of Procedures for Recognition and Enforcement of New York Convention Awards” published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. The firm is also the author of the “IBA Arbitration Guide” for Lebanon and has participated in the review and translation of the Arabic versions of the IBA Guidelines for Drafting International Arbitration Clauses and the revised 2012 ICC Rules.
Senior Partner Professor Comair-Obeid is frequently invited as a speaker to international arbitration conferences and events, and has held and continues to hold prominent positions in many of the major international arbitration and professional institutions. Professor Comair-Obeid is the President-Elect (for 2017) of the CIArb and was serving as Vice-President of the Chartered Institute for 2016. In 2014, Professor Comair-Obeid was unanimously elected by Trustees from nine regions across the globe including Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe, Ireland, Great Britain and the Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent to the position of Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CIArb. Professor Comair-Obeid was the first arbitration professional from the Middle East and the first woman from the Middle East in the Chartered Institute of Arbitrator’s one hundred-year history to have achieved such recognition.
Professor Comair-Obeid is also one of the Course Directors who has been heavily involved in providing the syllabus for a new CIArb Diploma Course for Arbitrators in Islamic Banking and Finance disputes which took place at the beginning of September 2015 in Malaysia in association with the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance of the Global University of Islamic Finance.
Partner Ziad Obeid acts as chairperson, sole and co-arbitrator in a number of international arbitrations conducted under a variety of international arbitration rules. He is also a member of the Djibouti International Arbitration Centre Task Force, the ICC Bulletin Editorial Board, and co-chair of SIAC’s Users Council Committee for the Middle East. Ziad is also a member of the Task Force in charge of proposing amendments for the revision of the ICC ADR Rules, Expertise Rules and Dispute Board Rules issued by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
Website: www.obeidlawfirm.com