Zulficar & Partners

Partner Mohamed Abdel Wahab remains in demand as expert witness and arbitrator as well as counsel

_{*Includes certain cases where the firm is not counsel of record.} 

Founded in 2009, this Cairo-based firm works on international arbitrations relating to oil and gas, telecoms, finance, banking and IT.

As an Egyptian firm, many of its cases are at the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), but it also has SIAC, ICC and ad hoc cases on its books and has done work at ICSID.

Founding partner Mohamed Abdel Wahab leads the arbitration practice as well as the firm’s project management team. He is a vice president of the ICC Court, a member of the CIETAC panel of arbitrators and a vocal proponent of the use of arbitration for resolving Islamic finance disputes. He is also a member of the IBA’s core advisory group that is considering reforms to investor-state arbitration.

Abdel Wahab is a well-regarded arbitrator as well as counsel and is ranked as a “thought leader” in arbitration by Who’s Who Legal. He has received a prize for his advocacy from the Swiss Arbitration Association.

The arbitration team also includes partners Youssef Al Saman and Ingy Badawy, and counsel Lojayne Shaheen and Omar Abdel Aziz. Recently promoted partner Moustafa Alameldin and counsel Karim Ramsis are also names to note.

Who uses it?

Clients include CEMEX, Bechtel, Bawabet Al Kuwait Holding Company, Saipem, Shelf Drilling, Crédit Agricole, Dragon Oil, Methanex, Pfizer, Philip Morris International, Orange, TotalEnergies, Egyptian General Petroleum Company (EGPC), Ford, Honda, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Goldman Sachs and APM Terminals.

The firm has also represented Bahrain and Canada.

Track record

In 2017, Zulficar helped mobile operator Orange Egypt (formerly Mobinil) settle an eight-year Cairo centre arbitration with an Egyptian state-owned telecoms company over interconnection fees. At the time of settlement, the tribunal had already upheld Orange’s claim in principle and dismissed a US$1.8 billion counterclaim by the state entity.

The year before, as co-counsel with Clifford Chance, the firm helped Bawabet Al Kuwait Holding Company – part of the business empire of Kuwait’s wealthy Al-Kharafi family – settle a US$400 million ICSID claim against Egypt. The case concerned gas pricing and tax measures that affected a petrochemicals investment.

The firm has had successes for EGPC. In one London-seated case, the client got the firm involved only 18 months into the proceedings, having failed to retain external counsel before that point. Zulficar nevertheless turned things around and won an award with costs in EGPC’s favour.

In the Egyptian courts, the firm helped the production company of Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef overturn a US$14 million award in favour of Cairo TV network CBC.

Recent events

Zulficar & Partners has advised Egyptian state-owned Arab Contractors and its Greek joint venture partner Archirodon in their long-running efforts to collect on a US$138 million ICC award against Kuwaiti consortium DIPCO issued more than a decade ago. The clients had been subcontracted for work on an Egyptian port terminal before the project was cancelled.

The dispute was finally settled in 2022 when the port authority agreed to make a US$260 million payout to resolve its dispute with DIPCO, a portion of which will go to the subcontractors.

The firm also reports winning another case for Arab Contractors at the CRCICA against two local partners.

Along with Clyde & Co, the firm represented Bahraini hotel investor Nile Douma in a treaty claim against Egypt. An award was issued in late 2021 dismissing the claim.

Abdel Wahab is chairing an ICSID tribunal hearing Dutch-registered Shell Petroleum’s treaty claim against Nigeria.

He was also elected president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators for the 2025 term.

In 2022, the firm promoted Alameldin to partner, Ramsis to counsel and Nada Hashim to senior associate. The firm promoted another member to associate and hired two more.

Client comment 

Stavros Brekoulakis of 3 Verulam Buildings says the firm has “excellent expertise in construction and engineering work as well as outstanding knowledge of the MENA region laws and practices”, and that Abdel Wahab is “one of the most hard working and committed individuals” he has ever worked with.

HKA partner Franco Mastrandrea says the firm provided “excellent integration of the legal and expert theories” in pleadings on a contractual arbitration. He praises Abdel Wahab’s presentation skills, and partner Ramsis for his work with experts and assembly of the legal and quantum case.

A government lawyer who appeared before Abdel Wahab as an arbitrator says he is “excellent by all means”.

A well-known partner at a GAR 30 firm who has recently sat on a tribunal with Abdel Wahab says “his views, opinions and advice are always spot-on. He is a highly respected practitioner and arbitrator in the arbitration community and always exhibits utmost professionalism and outstanding ethics”.