2nd Arab Regional Forum Conference

Amal Bouchenaki

Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills

Amal Bouchenaki is a partner in the international arbitration group of Herbert Smith Freehills, based in the New York office. She advises companies and states in complex international treaty- and contract-based arbitrations conducted under various major arbitration rules, including in the Middle East and North Africa. Amal also litigates international arbitration matters before national courts and manages complex multi-jurisdictional disputes. She is qualified as a French avocat and California attorney and is a French and Algerian national.

Amani Cherry Mohsen Khalifa

Amani Khalifa is an arbitration specialist and a bilingual, dual British/Egyptian national with combined knowledge of English and Egyptian law. As counsel, she specializes in construction cases and frequently sits as arbitrator throughout the MENA region. Amani is also an arbitrator on the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal and a CEDR-accredited mediator. She is an officer of the International Bar Association’s Arab Regional Forum and read law at Downing College, Cambridge. Amani is qualified to practice in Egypt, England and Wales, and New York State.

Kamal Sefrioui

Kamal Sefrioui specializes in international commercial arbitration, focusing on disputes related to government contracts and large, complex infrastructure projects. He consistently represents states or their state-owned entities in international arbitrations and litigations involving both their sovereign and commercial activities, including defense, education, healthcare, energy, and aviation. Kamal has also handled key litigations resulting in landmark decisions in the field of sovereign immunities in France.

Kilian Bälz

Partner at Amereller

Dr. Kilian Bälz is a partner at Amereller, an international law firm focusing on the MENA Region with offices in Cairo, Tripoli, Damascus, Erbil, Baghdad, and Dubai. He focuses his practice on finance and projects, particularly in energy and telecom sectors, and represents clients in arbitration proceedings. Kilian has been involved in high-profile disputes involving Libyan parties and issues related to fragile statehood. He has published widely on Middle Eastern business law and is a regular speaker at conferences. In 2008, he was a fellow at Harvard Law School.

Lamia R Matta

Partner at Miller & Chevalier

Lamia Matta is a partner at Miller & Chevalier in Washington, DC, where she practices in litigation and global compliance. She counsels on corporate compliance and white-collar defense, primarily involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Lamia has conducted internal investigations in multiple countries on behalf of multinational corporations and has worked on numerous FCPA due diligence reviews in the lead-up to major acquisitions and mergers. She has recognized experience in the Middle East and North Africa and has represented both U.S. and non-U.S. clients in international trade, commercial, and criminal defense matters.

Laurence Shore

Team Leader, International Arbitration Focus Team at BonelliErede Milan

Laurence Shore moved to BonelliErede-Milan from New York in September 2017 and is the team leader of the firm’s International Arbitration Focus Team. He has been the lead advocate in many international arbitration cases involving a wide range of industry sectors, such as energy, construction, telecommunications, mining, healthcare, intellectual property, and finance. Laurence also sits as an arbitrator under various arbitration rules, including ICC, LCIA, ICSID, and UNCITRAL. He is a co-author of 'International Investment Arbitration: Substantive Principles' and is a member of the LCIA’s North American Users’ Council and the Institute for Transnational Arbitration’s Executive Committee.

Mohamed Ghannam

Head of Banking & Finance and Energy, Mining & Infrastructure Practice Groups at Baker McKenzie Cairo

Mohamed Ghannam heads the Banking & Finance and Energy, Mining & Infrastructure practice groups at Baker McKenzie's Cairo office. He is consistently ranked in the top tier for banking and finance by Chambers Global, IFLR1000, and Legal 500 EMEA for his project finance and cross-border finance practice. Mohamed focuses on project finance, major projects, mergers and acquisitions, oil and gas, capital markets, and transactional work. He has acted as counsel to many leading multinational companies and financial institutions in various industries, assisting them in high-value, precedent-setting transactions in Egypt.

Nasser Khasawneh

Middle East Chairman and Head of TMT Sector at Eversheds Sutherland

Nasser Ali Khasawneh is Eversheds Sutherland's Middle East Chairman and Head of the firm's TMT sector. Early in his career, he worked at the United Nations Compensation Commission, adjudicating compensation claims arising from Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991. He then served as in-house Legal Counsel at Procter and Gamble and as Corporate Attorney for Microsoft Corporation before establishing Khasawneh & Associates in 2003, which later merged with Eversheds Sutherland. Nasser is currently serving as Co-Chair of the IBA's Arab Regional Forum.

Nayla Comair-Obeid

Founding Partner at Obeid Law Firm

Professor Dr. Nayla Comair-Obeid is the founding partner of Obeid Law Firm and heads the firm's dispute resolution practice. She is a professor of international commercial arbitration at the Lebanese University and formerly taught alternative dispute resolution at the Lebanese Judicial Institute. Nayla chaired the board of trustees of the CIArb in 2014 and was the President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 2017. She regularly serves as counsel and arbitrator in Arabic, French, and English-language arbitrations conducted both ad hoc and under various international arbitration rules. In August 2018, she was appointed as a member of China's International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People's Court.

Raëd Fathallah

Partner at Bredin Prat

Raëd Fathallah is a partner in Bredin Prat’s International Arbitration Group in Paris. He specializes in international arbitration, acting as counsel in large-scale and complex investment and commercial arbitrations, representing corporations, sovereign states, and state entities. Raëd has served as an arbitrator in more than 50 cases under various arbitration rules, including ICSID, ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL. He is recognized as a leading practitioner in the field and has been involved in over 150 proceedings across various industries and regions.