Firms in the spotlight: Zulficar & Partners Law Firm

Zulficar & Partners is a premier arbitration and corporate law firm based in the heart of Cairo, Egypt, providing a comprehensive range of legal services, to a diverse array of clients, both in Egypt and internationally.

Since its establishment in 2009, the firm has been providing a comprehensive and bespoke range of state-of-the-art legal services to a diverse portfolio of national and international commercial, investment, industrial and financial clients, as well as state and state-owned entities.

Zulficar& Partners Firm has established itself as a legal market leader regionally and a precedent-maker across all sectors and disciplines, with a clear track record of success; being well known for its innovative, strategic, and result-oriented techniques and services.

The Firm leads the market with five-star quality groups of 16 partners and more than 65 senior associates, associates, and counsels, specializing in Arbitration, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Construction, Corporate/ M&As, Energy, and Litigation.

Zulficar& Partners was founded by seven Founding Partners. Ms. Mona Zulficar serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee. She is an attorney for more than 40 years, with a specialization in major restructuring projects finance, and M&A transactions, and a commitment to community activism and advocacy for human rights and women’s rights in Egypt and internationally since 1985. Ms. Zulficar has received many local, regional, and international awards, in addition to being listed by Forbes Middle East as one of the 50 most powerful businesswomen in the region for the last four consecutive years.

The Firm is well known for its award-winning and world-class Arbitration Group, founded and headed by Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, the Arbitration Group is available and able to conduct international arbitral proceedings in diverse jurisdictions, under various laws, and in different languages to the highest standards of efficiency and professionalism, and is regularly instructed to represent corporations, investors and governmental entities from across the globe in arbitral proceedings under major institutional rules including the AAA, ADCCAC, CRCICA, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA, ICC, ICSID, JCAA, LCIA, LMAA, SCC, and SIAC, as well as ad-hoc proceedings governed by the UNCITRAL rules and/or diverse national laws.

Zulficar and Partner’s solid Arbitration Group is founded on a combination of knowledge, expertise, creativity, and strategic dispute management. We pride ourselves as market leaders in the world of arbitration, where we regularly prosecute cases under major institutional rules and in ad-hoc proceedings.

Zulficar and Partner’s Banking& Finance Group is founded on the achievements track records and expertise of its members. Headed by Founding Partner, Mr. Ashraf Ihab, the Banking& Finance

Group distinguishes itself by its strict observance of a set of uncompromising values and principles that mark its identity and professional culture. The Group provides a comprehensive range of legal services for a wide variety of renowned international and regional banks, financial institutions, corporate and governmental clients as well as other entities.

The Firm’s Litigation Group has extensive experience with the procedural and substantive laws in Egypt. Headed by Founding Partner Mr. Mahmoud Shaltout, our Litigation group has the expertise and required skills to represent local and international clients in all complex domestic claims, multi-jurisdictional litigation, IP & competition law practice. The Group also has an extensive well known Taxation litigation practice, further to the extensive experience handling privatization disputes.

Zulficar and Partner’s Corporate/ M&A Group is handled by two main groups within the Firm: The Mergers and Acquisition Group headed by Founding Partner Dr. Ingy Badawy and the Capital Markets and Procedural Group, headed by Founding Partner Mr. Anwar Zeidan. Founding and Managing Partner Dr. Firas El Samad is a prominent and active member of the Merger& Acquisitions Group, in addition to being the Head of the Competition Law and IT group. Ms. Mona Zulficar also provides the group with valuable support when required.

The Firm’s M&A Group is recognized and signaled for establishing precedents and introducing innovative products, structures, and solutions to the Egyptian market through its creative and proactive problem-solving approaches. The Group has represented and continues to represent clients in major domestic as well as cross-border transactions, restructuring and acquisition, joint ventures, IPOs, and private equality funding transactions in various sectors, including healthcare, banking and finance, education, electronics, E- Payment Solutions, renewable energy, oil and gas, real estate, consumer goods, and other diverse industrial sectors.

Zulficar& Partner’s Capital Markets Group is the market leader in Egypt, with extensive and significant hands-on experience in all Capital Market transactions. Headed by Founding Partner Mr. Anwar Zeidan, the Group is not only known for its in-depth- knowledge of the regulatory framework but is also proactively helping to shape regulations through its constant interaction with the regulators. Recently the Group assisted in the preparation of the first SPAC regulations. The group has been involved in most of the landmark successful tender offers and IPOs executed in Egypt during the last ten years.

The Firm is regularly ranked as a first-tier dispute resolution and arbitration practice and regularly features as a leading dispute resolution and arbitration firm in leading directories. Partners and lawyers of the Arbitration Group are regularly published on intricate and hot topics of dispute resolution and are regularly invited to speak at international dispute resolution fora and events. The Firm is the only

Egyptian Firm that featured for no less than nine consecutive years in the GAR 100 guide to the world’s top arbitration firms since 2015.

The IFLR1000 ranks the Firm as Tier 1 in Banking, M&A, Project Finance and Capital Markets; Debt& Equity, and acknowledged Mona Zulficar, Ashraf Ihab, Dr. Ingy Badawy, and Anwar Zeidan as Highly Regarded Lawyers, Dr. Firas El Samad as a Notable Practitioner,

Mariam El Masry and Rana Al Nahal as Rising Stars.

In 2023, the Firm was top-ranked by Chambers Global Guide 2023, in Banking& Finance Capital Markets, Corporate/ M&A, Dispute Resolution: Arbitration, and Dispute Resolution: Litigation (Egypt), naming Prof. Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab as “One of the best- known arbitration lawyers in Egypt”, and Mahmoud Shaltout as “Smart, good on his feet and very engaged.”, and naming Ms. Mona Zulficar “The guru of banking law”, and Mr. Anwar Zeidan as “ One of the best in capital markets”, and Mariam El Masry as “A very strong lawyer”.

In 2022, the Firm won Merger Control Law Firm of the Year in Egypt by the global law annual awards for the work done by Dr. Firas El Samad in this area and the WWL said “Mohamed Abdel Wahab is an all-time great of construction arbitration”.

Furthermore, the Legal 500 ranked the Firm as Top Tier in Banking and Finance, Commercial Corporate and M&A, and Dispute Resolution Arbitration and Litigation, naming Mona Zulficar, Ashraf Ihab, Anwar Zeidan, Dr. Ingy Badawy, Prof. Dr. Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, and Mahmoud Shaltout as Leading Individuals. Partner Youssef AL Saman was mentioned as a Next- generation partner in Dispute Resolution Arbitration. Dr. Ingy Badawy was also named in the IFLR100 Women Leaders of 2022 for her continuous achievements.

In 2021, Chambers & Partners ranked the Firm as Band 1 in Dispute Resolution: Arbitration and Litigation and in Banking and Finance, naming Mona Zulficar as “One of the best banking and finance lawyers in the country” Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab “An absolute star in arbitration”, and Mahmoud Shaltout as Band 1 in Dispute Resolution: Litigation, stating that he is “Regarded by interviewees as an ‘Exceptional Lawyer’” Band 1 in Capital Markets naming Anwar Zeidan “A leading figure in Egyptian capital markets”, and Ashraf Ihab is noted for “His in-depth knowledge of bond issuances and securitizations”.

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