Firm overview
Zulficar & Partners is an international corporate law and arbitration practice firm based in the Nile City Building in the heart of Cairo, Egypt. It mainly specializes in Arbitration, Banking and Project Finance, Construction law and practice, Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Market Procedures and Transactions, Oil & Gas, IT and Telecommunications, Competition Law, Labour law, Tourism & Leisure and Litigation. The firm offers a comprehensive range of legal services to a diverse array of commercial, industrial, and financial clients both in Egypt and internationally
Established in June 2009, the firm now has 11 partners and more than 65 Lawyers, and is continuously expanding to cater for the ever-increasing demand for its leading and high quality services.
As a market leader, and drawing on the unparalleled expertise of its partners and lawyers, the Firm brings to the legal market a blend of exceptional individual and collective skills as well as more than 35 years of legal experience. The Firm prides itself as having star quality lawyers possessing recognized track records in establishing precedents, winning arbitration and litigation cases, introducing innovative products, solutions and structures to the Egyptian Market through their creative and proactive problem solving approach. The firm provide its clients with top quality legal services that cater for their business needs. Possessing a culture of rich values of professional ethics and social responsibility, the firm continuously offers cutting edge spot on advice that distinguishes it and makes a difference for its clients.
The Firm provides a comprehensive range of state-of-the-art legal services for its wide variety of international and domestic clients. It is currently growing at an accelerated pace and has already established itself as a market leader and precedent maker across all sectors and disciplines. The Firm is regularly ranked as a top tier in various practice areas, and its partners are regularly ranked as top tier leading lawyers in world leading directories, including: the Global Arbitration Review (GAR), the Legal 500, the IFLR 1000 and Chambers & Partners Global.
The Firm is founded on the achievements, track record and expertise of its members, and is now perceived as one of the best in the MENA region with a global outreach and international expertise. The Firm prides itself in offering cost-effective and time-efficient services, which are facilitated through leadership and teamwork. The Firm has a specialized department for follow up purposes to ensure providing our clients with timely responses.
The Firm offers comprehensive and impressive bespoke services to a diverse portfolio of national and international commercial, investment, industrial, financial clients as well as States and state-owned entities. It continues to feature in the GAR Guide to top 100 Arbitration Firms worldwide ever since 2015.
The Firm is regularly ranked as a first-tier dispute resolution and arbitration practice with star practitioners such as Prof. Dr. Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab who heads the Firm’s Arbitration Group and Mr. Mahmoud Shaltout who heads the Firm’s Litigation Group. Furthermore, Chambers & Partners ranked the Firm in 2015 as Band 1 in Banking and Finance and Dispute Resolution: Arbitration, and named Mrs. Mona Zulficar as Star Individual in banking and Finance and Band 1 in Corporate and M&A and Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab as Star Individual in Dispute Resolution: Arbitration and Band 1 in Dispute Resolution.
Ever since 2015, the IFLR ranked the Firm as Tier 1 in Banking, Capital Markets, M&A and Project Finance, and acknowledged Mona Zulficar, Ashraf Ihab and Dr. Ingy Badawy as Leading Lawyers. Similarly, Legal 500 ranked the Firm as Tier 1 in Dispute Resolution, Banking and Finance, Corporate, and M&A.
In 2016, The Firm was awarded the IFLR Middle East M&A deal of the year for advising Citibank on the sale of its consumer and retail business to Commercial International Bank.
In 2017-2018, the IFLR ranked the Firm as Tier 1 in Banking, Capital Markets, M&A and Project Finance, and acknowledged Mona Zulficar, Ashraf Ihab, Dr. Ingy Badawy and Anwar Zeidan as Leading Lawyers/ Highly Regarded Lawyers. Similarly, the Legal 500 ranked the Firm as Top Tier in Banking and Finance, Corporate, M&A and Dispute Resolution, naming Ashraf Ihab, Anwar Zeidan, Dr. Ingy Badawy and Prof. Dr. Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab as Leading Individuals. Recommended lawyers by Legal 500 include Ashraf Ihab in banking and telecoms, Dr. Ingy Badawy, Anwar Zeidan, Dr. Firas El Samad in corporate and M&A, Dr. Firas El Samad in telecoms, Prof. Dr. Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab in dispute resolution and Mona Zulficar in banking, corporate M&A and telecommunications. Furthermore, Chambers & Partners ranked the Firm in 2017-2018 as Band 1 in Banking and Finance and Dispute Resolution: Arbitration, naming Mona Zulficar as an Eminent Practitioner in Banking and Finance and in Corporate and M&A and Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab as a Star Individual in Dispute Resolution: Arbitration.
In 2017, the Firm was awarded the Global Arbitration Review “Mediterranean or North African international arbitration practice that impressed” at the GAR Ceremony held on 29 March 2017 in Milan, Italy.
In 2018, the Firm was awarded the Thomson Reuters PFI Global Multilateral Project Finance Deal of the Year, for having advised the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) in connection with Egypt’s Solar Program in Benban. The internationally acclaimed Program secured financial closure for 30 solar projects having an aggregate installed capacity of approximately 1600 MW and a total FDI of USD 2.2 Billion, making it the largest solar park in the world, upon completion by the end of 2019.
In 2019, the Firm was awarded the “National Law Firm of the Year” (the most innovative law firm of the year) for Egypt at the IFLR Middle East Awards ceremony held at the Burj El Arab, Dubai, on 16 October 2019, and also was awarded the “Egyptian Leading Dispute Resolution Practice” by Chambers & Partners at the Chambers & Partners Middle East Awards ceremony held at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai, on 13 November 2019. This was in recognition of the Firm’s stellar record of international arbitration cases across the globe and the established track record of winning cases under the laws of many jurisdictions including, but not limited to: Egyptian, English, French, Kuwaiti, Libyan, Omani, Saudi, Syrian and UAE laws.