Corporate and Commercial Law
Oil, Gas and Infrastructure Privatization
Trade Law
Intellectual Property
Public Procurements
Taxation
Telecommunications
Labor Law
Banking and Finance
Litigation and Commercial Arbitration
Industrial Projects
Securities Law
Commercial Agencies and Franchising
FCPA and Corporate Compliance

Corporate and Commercial Law

Ali & Partners is a leading advisor on all aspects of doing business in the Middle East, including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan , Iraq and Libya. We advise a wide spectrum of clients on the intricacies of setting up business in the various jurisdictions and the legal ramifications of all the peripheral issues involved in the process. Examples of the issues with which the firm deals in advising a client on the formation of a business in a specific jurisdiction are: finding an acceptable agent, researching the forms of businesses allowed in the jurisdiction; structuring the business to conform to both the client’s and the jurisdiction’s requirements; negotiating and drafting the relevant agreements; and obtaining necessary documents and licenses from the appropriate ministry, to name a few.

Our law firm also advises its clients on more specific corporate and commercial issues. One of the most common and helpful services we provide to our clients is reviewing existing agreements and documents to determine if their terms are within the laws of a particular jurisdiction in the Middle East. We also advise clients doing business in a certain jurisdiction of obligations they may face of which they may be unaware, for example, offset programs. As a result of having offices throughout the Arab-speaking Middle East, we are able to offer our clients a superior level of region-specific work, such as due diligence, translations and location of agents and other sources.

The firm maintains active contact with our clients. We monitor the local daily newspapers and the official Gazette of the various jurisdictions for items of interest to our clients and items that may affect our clients’ business dealings in their specific regions. Additionally, we monitor the legislative processes of the various countries and notify our clients of recent enactments that may be of relevance to them.

We assist foreign investors in structuring the appropriate form of business and in negotiating and setting up commercial presence region wide. The firm recently has been involved in setting up and acting as sole counsel for all aspects of a regional e-commerce platform by a joint venture of American, regional and a Kuwaiti company .The firm also regularly act as the outside counsel for major banks and corporations for all aspects of their corporate legal work. We also help negotiate, and draft relevant agreements and obtain necessary documentation and licenses. The firm’s clients range from small private businesses to major defense contractors and international oil companies, in a myriad of commercial, corporate and agency transactions.

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Oil, Gas and Infrastructure Privatization

With the recent movement toward privatization of government-owned entities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the work of the firm in this area is growing rapidly. Advice on these matters begins with the tender process and usually proceeds through to the completion of the project. Our lawyers are always abreast of bid offers by the governments of the various jurisdictions, and advise our clients on prequalification for those tenders which may be of interest to them.

The firm has had the privilege of working on several major projects in this area. Among these projects is the firm’s legal work on behalf of the Export-Import Bank and commercial lenders in the Kuwait Shuaiba Petrochemical Project ("Equate"), a $2.4 billion joint-venture. The firm also represented a major U.S./French Consortium in a project involving the construction of a new waste water facility and the conversion of the current waste water treatment plant in Kuwait.

The firm is involved in counseling international oil companies on various aspects of the Kuwait oil sector and the structure of the state owned companies their procurement procedures both in the downstream and upstream operations. The firm has published articles in this regard in the MEED magazine. Furthermore, the firm has been involved in several major projects in this area, advising clients beginning with the tender process through the completion of the project.

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Trade Law

This area of law is particularly relevant to our commercial clients who have chosen to open branches in the Middle East region. Advice on these matters generally focuses on the regulations surrounding the importation and exportation of goods in the different jurisdictions. The regulations involve such issues as labeling, packaging, points of origin, etc. Additionally, the firm offers advice on the various customs duties and tariffs, as well as the possibility of operating in existing free trade zones in the region.

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Intellectual Property

Another important aspect of business for corporations choosing to do business in the Middle East is intellectual property. Of course, each jurisdiction has its own regulations regarding trademarks and patents and our job at Ali & Partners is to advise our clients on these regulations.

Advice on these intellectual property matters includes searching, filing and renewing trademarks and tradenames, obtaining patents and patent registrations and preventing the unauthorized use of client’s trademarks, tradenames and patents. The firm advises on issues relating to various infringements, such as counterfeit and piracy, and on the means of remedying those infringements. Additionally, we advise companies and organizations on intellectual property rights obligation under the various multilateral agreements of WTO and WIPO and the compliance of the affected countries in the region.

The firm also regularly registers patents for major US companies.

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Public Procurements

The firm actively counsels a large number of clients on a wide range of issues relating to public procurements by Arab governments ranging from military to civil aviation. Our work in this area includes advising our clients on the procedure involved for procurements in the jurisdictions, types of contracts subject to procurement laws and the different rules and regulations affecting the process.

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Taxation

A secondary aspect to our work in advising corporate clients seeking to establish businesses in the Middle East is tax ramifications. We advise our clients on the tax implications of forming the various types of companies permitted under each jurisdiction. This advice includes advising foreign nationals employed in these jurisdictions, by either local or international corporations, of the tax issues they will confront. Our work also involves assisting our clients in filing their taxes in the various jurisdictions, where necessary. We are currently in the process of advising a client (confidential) on the best structure, given the tax ramifications and strategic considerations, for tendering for contracts in Kuwait in view of the UK/Kuwait double taxation treaty.

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Telecommunications

This is another area of law where the work of the firm is growing at a rapid pace. In this age of the internet and global communications, telecommunications issues are, more and more, becoming aspects of every day business. Ali & Partners has been involved in groundbreaking work in this area in the Middle East, particularly in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. We have advised clients on setting up Internet Service Providers and other International Record Carriers in different areas of the region, establishing franchise and agency agreements for satellite services throughout the GCC countries and locating investors for mobile communications satellite systems.

Our work in this area also includes internet-specific issues. Our firm advises and assists clients in settling domain name disputes and other internet-related problems. The firm has also assisted various financial institutions on their on-line service to their Middle East clients. We have also counseled a major satellite consortium on the telecommunications regulations of the GCC for the sale of telemedicine, tele-education and other telecommunications services.

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Labor Law

Our firm also provides labor and employment law advice to our clients. Much of the firm’s work is in the form of opinions to our clients relating to the labor and employment rules and regulations of the jurisdictions involved. For those clients establishing businesses or offices in a particular country, in addition to drafting employee contracts, we advise and assist our clients in obtaining all the necessary paperwork and documents to normalize and legalize their employees.

The firm’s work in this area also involves more employee-specific issues, such as advising clients on the interplay of local labor laws and the laws of the country in which the employees where hired. Most recently, the firm has represented a major US logistical support company in a labor dispute in Kuwait and obtained groundbreaking decisions on the applicability of Kuwaiti labor law to foreign employees seconded to Kuwaiti projects. Furthermore the firm assists foreign entities in understanding the national labor encouragement laws.

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Banking and Finance

The firm represents a variety of local and international banks and financial institutions. It provides clients with a variety of legal services ranging from consultancy on a variety of banking and securities law and securitization issues to litigation and appearing as expert witnesses abroad. The firm represents international investment companies in structuring investment transactions with high net worth individuals and public companies. It also assists these firms in setting up foreign exchange transactions for spot and future contracts with local banks. The firm also has been engaged by a local bank to set up its virtual banking subsidiary. This project involved representing the bank in all aspects of the transaction starting from choosing the location for the virtual bank, fulfilling the licensing requirements, obtaining the technology, setting up controls, content provision, documentation and all other aspects. The firm has also worked on several major oil projects in this area, including providing legal work on behalf of an oil company and the back financing financial institutions for the Kuwait Neutral Zone area oil activities; the firm attorneys had also represented U.S. Export-Import Bank in the Kuwait Shuaiba Petrochemical Project (Equate). The firm assisted foreign banks and financial institutions on various transactions ranging from debt syndication to sale of foreign securities, trading accounts, infrastructure project financing and general compliance with regional financial laws and regulations.

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Dispute Resolution, Litigation and Commercial Arbitration

While the majority of the firm’s work tends to be transactional in nature, Ali & Partners also conducts litigation and arbitration on behalf of its clients. Not only does our firm represent our clients in Middle Eastern courts, but we also assist other US and English law firms in legal proceedings that relate to the laws of the Middle East. This assistance can include serving and deposing witnesses, providing expert advice on the laws of Arab-speaking Middle East and advising on the feasibility of pursuing legal action in certain jurisdictions.

Our firm also participates in arbitration proceedings on behalf of our clients. The firm has been involved in several arbitration proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration and the American Arbitration Association and our lawyers are well versed on the UNCITRAL rules. Additionally, the firm’s managing partner is a member of the Arab Association for International Arbitration. Recently, we have been involved in ICC arbitration in Paris on behalf of a Mexican company concerning Kuwaiti law issues, AAA arbitration on behalf of a major US defense contractor against its Kuwaiti agent, and arbitration in Cyprus on behalf of a Belgium company concerning Yemeni law issues. We also regularly appear as expert witnesses on Kuwaiti law in both US courts and arbitration proceedings.

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Industrial Projects

Another area that the firm is busy in is that of Industrial Projects, where our lawyers assist and advise developers in mega projects. This work includes advising the client on administrative, environmental and constitutional issues, as well as dealing with various public authorities. One example of the types of projects our firm advises on is the Kuwait Shuaiba Petrochemical Project. As a result of the firm’s years of experience in this area of law, our lawyers have become experts on the administrative and legal aspects of these projects in the various jurisdictions. The firm has represented clients in BOT transactions.  The firm has also advised a major US/French consortium in a project involving the construction of a new wastewater facility in Kuwait. We have done work on various aspects of infrastructure work. The firm is currently involved in the finance arrangements concerning the Neutral Zone oil operations.

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Securities Law

The firm counsels a wide range of financial institutions, US and European, on a variety of securities matters including the applicability of the securities laws of the local jurisdictions to various financial and securities transactions involving local nationals and corporations.

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Commercial Agencies and Franchising

In addition to the general corporate and commercial work that the firm practices in, we also offer our clients a more specialized emphasis in commercial agencies and franchising. We assist our clients by locating or providing background information on potential agents and, once the appropriate agent is found, by negotiating and drafting the agency and/or franchising agreements. More importantly, we provide our clients with advise on the ways and means of diluting the protections afforded to commercial agents by the laws of the various jurisdictions.

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FCPA and Corporate Compliance

The firm regularly assists US companies in formulating corporate compliance strategies. Including assistance in negotiations with agents distributors, due diligence, drafting of training manuals and policies.

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