Ahmad Hafez

Ahmad has amassed over 20 years of legal experience practicing in the Middle East, having been involved in a number of the region’s most complex and notable litigious disputes. He is a Senior Associate within the Arabic litigation team, specialising in all areas of dispute resolution, with a particular focus on the commercial, real estate, banking, construction and criminal domains.

Ahmad acts for a range of clients across the GCC region and Middle East, as well as internationally, including private individuals, companies, well-known banks and financial institutions, HNWI’s and public entities. He is highly skilled and experienced in advising in relation to areas such as criminal investigations, financial crime, extradition matters, the recognition and enforcement of local and foreign awards and judgements and construction disputes. He has extensive experience in arranging lawsuits and legal memos, drafting statements of appeal and cassation, preparing legal opinions and presenting cases before all courts of the UAE, including the First Instance Courts, Courts of Appeal, Cassation Courts and Execution Courts in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. 

Ahmad is fluent in Arabic and English and has been admitted to practise under the Bar Association of Egypt since 1998.

• Securing multiple verdicts of innocence in a breach of trust criminal case on behalf of several clients, involving an accumulative amount of AED 50 million.
• Defending the victim in a complex banking litigation case, whose personal documents had been exploited by a perpetrator to acquire a new SIM card, alter their banking details and conduct substantial transactions, and securing a landmark judgement that found the bank liable for the AED 4.7 million fraud.
• Assisting in securing a complete restitution of funds in legal proceedings within Dubai in a highly reported criminal case on phishing and internet privacy, involving an unauthorised access and rapid depletion of a client’s $8 million bank account within a two-hour timeframe.
• Representing a Kuwaiti investment company, publicly listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, in intricate litigation and arbitration proceedings, valued at AED 2.6 billion, against a Chinese construction company, before both the local and commercial courts in Abu Dhabi.
• Serving as supporting counsel for a Dubai governmental company in an investigation pertaining to corruption and bribery accusations between the client and two counterparties engaged in a joint venture for a substantial project in Dubai’s hospitality sector, valued at AED 1.2 billion.
• Obtaining a favourable judgment by the Cassation Courts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for several real estate investors against a very prominent developer due to non-execution of the contracts and non-ownership of the plot.
• Acting on behalf of a multinational bank, providing representation across two Middle Eastern jurisdictions – Bahrain and KSA, in substantiating their assertations before the Cayman Islands Courts, involving intricate Arabic documents and matters pertaining to Civil Law in a USD 9.2 billion case.
• Securing a favourable judgment by the Court of Appeal in Abu Dhabi for one of the most prominent oil and gas companies in Egypt in a dispute related to the appointment of a receiver in a JV agreement for an amount of AED 40 million.
• Obtaining a favourable ruling from the Cassation Court in Abu Dhabi against a distinguished local developer in Abu Dhabi in a case pertaining to compensation resulting from breaches of multiple S&P agreements.