Samer Abou Said

Counsel, The Firm

Samer Abou Said is a Counsel at The Firm. He is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, a member of Beirut Bar Association and is licensed to appear before DIFC Courts. Samer gained international and in-house experience during his work with an international tribunal in The Hague – Netherlands, and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Samer provides transactional and corporate advice to clients in the construction, management, retail, cosmetics, real estate and media industry. He benefits of being fully bilingual in English and Arabic which allows him to handle cases before the UAE Arabic Courts. Samer has represented clients in disputes before the DIFC Courts, and arbitrations centers of the ICC, DIFC-LCIA, DIAC and ADCCAC. 

Samer is fluent in Arabic and English and proficient in French. He graduated from Lebanese University in 2003, obtained Master’s degree in International Law from Lebanese University and LLM in Oil and Gas Law from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen – the UK.

Khalil Mechantaf

Senior Associate, Kennedys

Khalil Mechantaf is a Senior Associate in our Dubai office. He is dual-qualified in Lebanon (Beirut Bar Association) in 2009 and as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 2017. Khalil has a PhD in Law and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Khalil has over ten years of experience in dispute resolution and international arbitration. His practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious construction and energy projects. He regularly acts as counsel in arbitrations under the ICC, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA and SIAC regimes. He has acted for both developers and contractors, specifically in the infrastructure, power, water and pipelines related disputes in the Middle East and Africa. He also advises clients during the life span of a project on quantum and delay claims.

Khalil is a member of the Society of Construction Law (UK) and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.

Qualifications

• Qualified in Lebanon in 2009
• Qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2017

Celine Abi Habib Kanakri

Partner, Kennedys

Celine is a partner in our Dubai office who specialises in UAE and international arbitration. She qualified in Lebanon in 2005 and is also a registered legal consultant in Dubai.

With over 10 years’ experience practicing in the Middle East, Celine’s expertise in domestic and international arbitration spans a range of industry sectors. Her focus is on UAE and international arbitration across a range of industry sectors, including real estate, commercial and construction disputes. She also has considerable experience of corporate, civil and commercial law within the UAE and has been involved in drafting several UAE decrees, laws and regulations.

Predominantly acting for multi-national corporates, construction companies and high net worth individuals, Celine has also been involved with drafting training materials for the Dubai Legal Affairs Department.

She is also fluent in Arabic, English and French, and is a member of the UAE International Chamber of Commerce and Arbitral Women. Celine also sits as arbitrator with leading institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Dubai International Financial Centre and London Court of International Arbitration (DIFC-LCIA), and Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) – from whom she was awarded best sole arbitrator under the age of 40 in 2018.

Qualifications

• Qualified in Lebanon in 2005

Patrick Gearon FCIArb

Partner, Charles Russell Speechlys

Patrick is Head of Charles Russell Speechlys LLP’s Middle East practice (conducted from offices in Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar).

He specialises in all areas of dispute resolution with particular emphasis on banking, intellectual property, insolvency, professional negligence and company disputes.

Patrick has conducted litigation and arbitration in Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Italy, France, Ukraine, the USA and in all the GCC states as well as in all the courts within the English jurisdiction.

Patrick leads the award-winning Middle East Disputes team which recently won the ‘Bahrain Dispute Resolution Law Firm of The Year’ award at the Chambers Middle East Awards 2019. He also leads the firm’s International Arbitration Group which won the ‘International Arbitration Team of the Year’ award at the Legal Business Awards 2018.

Additionally, Patrick leads the firm’s successful Bahrain office which won the ‘Bahrain Law Firm of The Year’ award at The Oath Legal Awards in both 2018 and 2019.

Patrick is one of the lead partners acting in the administration of Awal Bank B.S.C. which involves litigation and arbitration in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the USA and the Cayman Islands.

In addition to the awards referred to above, in recent years, the team were shortlisted for numerous awards, including “Middle East Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team of the Year” at The Oath Middle East Legal Awards; “Middle East Dispute Resolution Team of the Year” at the Legal Week Corporate Counsel Awards’; and ‘Litigation Team of the Year’ at the Legal Week Awards.

Patrick is admitted to practice in England and Wales and was awarded a CIArb Diploma in International Arbitration in July of 2018.

He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in September of 2018.

Erik Chiniara

Head of Practical Guidance – Lexis® Middle East, LexisNexis

Developing and managing an online, tech-driven, innovative practical guidance solution and practice development tools for legal professionals in the Middle East. Built on a powerful, fully integrated legal research platform, the product combines the largest collection of legal content with the most advanced legal technology ever created. Background in law and social sciences from Sciences Po Paris and McGill University.

Hany Elnaggar

Head of Tax for Middle East, Nissan

Hany is Head of Tax for Middle East at Nissan, Hany holds master’s degree in accounting and VAT certification in GCC.

Hany is certified accountant “CA” and have more than 20 years of tax experience in various industries in multiple jurisdictions including GCC and Middle East & Africa countries with an extensive experience in direct and indirect tax, International tax planning, TP, CbC reporting, BEPS, PE profit allocation, creating and establishing tax departments and VAT implementation leader for GCC.

Hany had visiting mission in Canada under supervision of United Nations for studying tax systems and participated in creating tax systems in Large Taxpayer Centre.

He worked in many companies and tax positions in Egyptian Tax Authority as tax auditor, PWC Middle East as senior tax consultant, Novartis Group as group tax manager, ACWA Power International as group Tax & Zakat senior manager for Middle East and Africa, Head of Tax for Saudi and Egypt Region and leadership team member for Rest of Middle East & Africa at Ericsson.

Mubeen Khadir

Partner, Tax & Corporate Services, KPMG

Mubeen is a corporate and tax lawyer with 20 years’ experience advising clients in Australia, Bahrain and across the GCC region.  Prior to joining KPMG Mubeen established, led and managed the tax team at another Bahrain based consulting firm.  He has extensive experience with both Big 4 and top tier law firms in Australia and the GCC.  His key areas of tax expertise are tax structuring, due diligence, Saudi and Bahrain tax, corporate & international tax, transfer pricing, tax disputes and VAT in the GCC.  He is the lead tax partner on clients across a range of industries including financial services, insurance, private equity, real estate & construction, oil & gas and diversified family business groups. His combined experience as a corporate and tax lawyer allow him to provide commercially focused, value-adding practical solutions to complex tax issues.

Mubeen holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Newcastle, Australia and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne, Australia.  He is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia.

Björn Köhler

General Manager – European Enterprise Team, MBG Corporate Services

Björn Köhler is General Manager within the European Enterprise Team of MBG Corporate Services and holds a degree in International Management. He has in-depth experience in advising companies on international tax matters and leading multiple engagements of varying size and complexity.

Prior to his role he worked for more than ten years in international project management in the International and Corporate Tax Service Line with KPMG Germany. His clients appreciate his professional knowledge, reliability and enthusiasm.

Sakina Dickenwala

Director – Legal Services, MBG Corporate Services

Sakina Dickenwala is the Director of Legal Services at MBG Corporate Services. She is a Law and Commerce Graduate and a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

She has nearly eight years of professional experience in advising various clients in the field of Corporate and Commercial Laws, Employment and Labour Laws, Economic Substance Regulation, Real Estate Laws etc. She has worked in the Middle East region since 2014.

She advises multinational clients on a wide range of aspects relating to commercial law in the UAE, business restructuring, commercial agency and distributorship, employment matters, designing of Corporate Governance Manual, developing ethics and compliance regulatory framework, conducting training, drafting policies defining roles and working of various committees like Audit Committee, Board of Directors Committee and has handled other compliance matters. Among other areas, she advises clients on international transactions, company formation and joint ventures, company liquidation.

Mohamed Hashish

Partner, Soliman, Hashish & Partners Law Firm

Mohamed Hashish has over sixteen (16) years of experience in handling Corporate, M&A, Restructuring, Banking & Finance, Energy & Electricity, TMT (including Data Protection & Privacy), Construction and Public Procurement matters.

Hashish has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal, IFLR 1000 and Legal 500 as a Highly-Regarded leading lawyer in Egypt for the areas of Banking, M&A and Project development for as of 2015 to date.

Throughout Hashish’s practice, he advised over 700 multinational clients on his area of practice including, inter alia, starting up and operation of their business in Egypt.

Due to his active practice and achievements, Hashish was appointed to serve several leadership positions such as (i) a Vice Chair at the International Financial Products & Services Committee of the International Law Section at the American Bar Association for the ABA terms starting from August 2016 to August 2021; and (iii) a Beachhead Advisor for Egypt at the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.