Obeid & Partners

Our Paris office brings a unique perspective with a distinctive mix of French and Middle Eastern experience and knowledge to service our clients. 
We act as a central hub for Europe and Africa by providing specialised and tailor-made legal services while embracing new technologies and innovative thinking. 
We bring a unique perspective with a distinctive mix of French and Middle Eastern experience and knowledge. Several of our lawyers have lived, studied, and practiced in France and maintain numerous professional relationships overseas. Our dual Arab and French legal culture has been a key driver in the development of our practice.
Obeid & Partners’ expertise, which has been consistently recognized by professionals and institutions as a world-leading practice, is grounded on a strong understanding of local laws and practice, extends from our home jurisdiction of Lebanon, to the wider MENA region and beyond.
Our clients range from foreign governments and multinational corporations, institutions, and private equity firms in multiple sectors such as energy, financial services, construction, telecommunication, pharmaceutical, aviation, real estate, manufacturing, aerospace, information technology and mining.
Our services are regularly retained in the most significant arbitrations where we act as counsel and arbitrators in international arbitrations cases conducted in English, French and Arabic.
We have been highly commended by international institutions and professional publications, including Legal 500, Chambers Global, Who’s Who Legal and the Global Arbitration Review (GAR). In addition, we have also been consistently ranked as having one of the top 100 arbitration practices in the world and is recognized globally as having a Tier 1, Number 1 ranking in dispute resolution.

Dispute Resolution | International Arbitration

Obeid & Partners has been widely recognised for its International Arbitration expertise in Lebanon and beyond. As part of our mission and vision to be the gateway to the MENA region for our clients we opened an offices in Paris and Dubai. We believe that these offices will be instrumental in expanding our international footprint in the field of international arbitration and enabling us to better service our clientele on cross-border matters. We believe that our combined efforts will reinforce our position in these markets as a leading specialist Middle Eastern disputes practice, creating bridges between cultures, continents and legal traditions.  
Expert Support in MENA Legislations and Sharia Law
Our team includes practitioners who regularly accept appointments as legal experts on various aspects of Middle Eastern and Shari’a law and have authored numerous publications relating to the laws of Arab countries.
Furthermore, we are regularly called to give expert evidence on aspects of Middle Eastern legislations before international arbitration tribunals and foreign courts including the Grand Courts of the Cayman Islands and the English High Court. They have presented evidence on matters such as agency issues, shareholding rights, commercial representation, enforcement and recognition of foreign judgments and the enforcement of international awards and injunctions in Lebanon and the Middle East. We draw on this experience to provide our clients with a detailed insight into complex and multi-jurisdictional matters.
We are regularly involved in cases where the following laws are applicable to the substance of the dispute:

• Egyptian Law, Jordanian Law, Kuwaiti Law, Lebanese Law, Qatari Law, Syrian Law, Tunisian Law, UAE Law, Yemeni Law
• English Law, French Law, Italian Law, Swiss Law, US Law

Joint Ventures

Given our international footprint and unique French/ Middle East expertise we are often called upon to advice on the merits of joint ventures between across borders. We also have significant experience on JV disputes and how to get out of such contractual arrangements.

Islamic Finance

We have significant expertise in advising clients on Islamic Finance issues notably in arbitration proceedings. 
Our founding partner, Prof. Dr. Nayla Comair-Obeid, has acted as member of the Corporate Governance Working Group of Islamic Banking (2004 – 2007) and has also authored numerous publications in Islamic finance and has co-authored the Diploma Course on Islamic Finance of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration in Malaysia. 

Recent mandates include

• Acting as counsel in enforcement proceedings of an international award in Lebanon, involving one of the largest frauds claims in the MENA telecommunication sector, involving a French telecom provider
• Represented a Spanish and Lebanese joint venture partners in proceedings before a Dispute Adjudication Board, and presently representing the joint venture in subsequent ICC, Paris-seated, arbitration under Algerian law arising from the construction of utilities buildings, foundation works, piping and cabling interconnection steel factory involving re-pricing and remeasurement issues, suspension, disruption, delay claims, and the alleged waiver of entitlement to prolongation costs
• Representing ITM Enterprises and Les Mousquetaires (privately owned retailing symbol group based in France and operating internationally), the owners of the world recognized French Intermarché brand in major trademark infringement actions and measures before the Lebanese courts
• Advising COGNIZANT (Nasdaq: CTSH) on the acquisition of the French operations of EI-Technologies, a French technology company operating in several jurisdictions, including in Lebanon and in multiple countries in the Middle East