Moderator: Sarah Malik – CEO of SOL International and International Disputes Counsel

 Panelists: 

– Gary Born
– Claudia El Hage
– Professor Najib Hage‐Chahine

Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP  (Panelist)

Gary Born, Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, is one of the world’s preeminent authorities on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. He has served as counsel in over 650 arbitrations, including several of the most prominent arbitrations in ICC and ad hoc history. He has sat as an arbitrator in over 200 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. Mr Born is President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Court of Arbitration and serves in an advisory capacity in other institutions worldwide. He is a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Trustees of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law. He has served on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI’s Restatement of US International Arbitration Law, the Advisory Committee of the ALI Restatement of US Foreign Relation Law (Fourth) and as co-chair of the ABA International Section, Committee on International Aspects of Litigation.

CEO of SOL International and International Disputes Counsel
(Moderator)

Sarah Malik is an award-winning lawyer who achieved Litigator of the Year (2022) at the first GCC Women in Law Awards and received an honourable mention in the ‘Law Firm Leader of the Year’ category at the same awards.

In March 2022, SOL was named by Legal 500 EMEA as a ‘Firm to Watch in Dispute Resolution: Arbitration and International Litigation’. Sarah and SOL have been further nominated as Women Lawyer of the Year and Rising Law Firm of the Year. She is a member of the SIAC Users Council in the Middle East and is appointed to the Lagos Panel of Arbitration Neutrals. Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and accepts appointments to sit as an Arbitrator. She undertakes international commercial arbitrations as Counsel (DIAC, ADCCAC, DIFC-LCIA, ICC) and practices commercial litigation at the DIFC and ADGM Courts.

At the end of 2019, she authored “A Guide to GCC Arbitration”, published by LexisNexis and in 2018, she authored “The UAE Chapter on Arbitration in the International Comparative Legal Guide”. Sarah is regularly invited to speak worldwide on arbitration, including for the ICC, CIArb and IBA.

Managing Partner, Rashed Al Marri Law Office – Qatar
In association with Claudia El Hage Law Office- Lebanon
(Panelist)

Claudia El Hage is the Managing Partner of Rashed al Marri Law Office (Qatar) in association with Claudia el Hage Law Office (Lebanon) – known as al Marri & el Hage Law Offices.

Claudia acts as a legal consultant, litigator, and arbitrator. She works in civil, corporate and commercial cases and transactions as well as business criminal cases and regulatory investigations.

She specializes mostly in construction, contracting, engineering consultancy, property, and real estate, corporate, banking, and M&A. She advises international and local firms on their projects with a focus on the MENA region as well as Europe and all legal aspects pertaining thereto. She has advised and represented clients in litigation, ADR, compliance, regulatory investigations and annulment recourses in relation to disputes and transactions of various nature. She also acts in various jurisdictions in international and domestic arbitration, mainly under ICC, LCIA and QICCA Rules and in ad hoc proceedings. Claudia also advises on all aspects of corporate and commercial matters. Her international law practice provides essential legal counsel to many international, regional and local commercial companies and corporations.

Managing Partner of Hage‐Chahine Law Firm
(Panelist)

He is a Professor of Civil Law at Saint‐Joseph University in Beirut and Dubai and at Université Paris 2 Panthéon‐Assas in Paris. He holds the prestigious title of Agrégé of the French Faculties of Law which is the highest academic recognition that is bestowed upon French Law practitioners and he is a dual‐qualified lawyer in Lebanon and France.

He currently serves as the President of the Lebanese International Arbitration Center of the Beirut Bar Association.

Named as one of MENA Super 50 Lawyers, Najib Hage‐Chahine specialises in Contract law and torts. He holds a Ph.D. in Private Law from Université Paris 2 Panthéon‐Assas, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a Master 2 in Private Law from Saint‐Joseph University, a Master 2 in Criminal Law from Lyon 3‐Jean Moulin University, a Master 1 in Business Law from Lyon 3‐Jean Moulin University and a LLB in Lebanese Law from Saint‐Joseph University. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration (FCIArb) and a member of several prominent international arbitration organisations. He has numerous publications in the fields of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, Civil Law, Contract law, Commercial Law, Private International Law, Mediation, and Tort Law.

Founding Partner, Al Sulaiti Law Firm
(Panelist)

Mubarak Al-Sulaiti is the Chairman and Founding Partner of Al Sulaiti Law Firm. He obtained a Bachelor of Law from Beirut Arab University in 1997 and is currently admitted to the Qatari Bar Association as a Cassation Advocate. He is also a certified arbitrator in Qatar. He is a member of the board of the Qatari Bar Association and is the President of the Qatar Lawyers Association.