Essam Al Tamimi

Essam Al Tamimi is the Chairman of Al Tamimi & Company, which he established in 1989 and which is now the largest law firm in the Middle East, focusing on Arbitration and Mediation. He has over 34 years of experience in litigation and arbitration in the UAE and the GCC countries, covering almost all fields of law, both private and public.

His experience includes matters relating to corporate and commercial law, banking and financial law, and real estate and property law across several industries and sectors. In addition to his role at the firm, he is a board member of the Dubai International Chamber, contributing to the strategic direction of Dubai’s international trade and business landscape.

Essam has been involved in drafting laws and regulations and has assisted federal and local governments across a range of sectors. These include the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Dubai Internet and Media City free zones, and the Abu Dhabi government on the privatisation of water and electricity, where he played a major role in drafting the privatisation and ADWEA laws and regulations. He assisted the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry in drafting the Federal Industrial law and implementing regulations, contributed to drafting laws for establishing several Free Zones in the UAE, and assisted the DIFC Authority in drafting laws and regulations relating to the DIFC Authority, the DIFC Court and the DIFC Arbitration Centre.

In addition to acting as counsel in numerous arbitration matters, Essam has acted as an expert witness in a wide array of litigious matters and has been appointed as an arbitrator and chair of arbitral tribunals under ADCCAC, CRCICA, DIAC, LCIA, ICC and PCA Rules. He was on the ICC Court, formerly acted as Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR in Paris, is the former Chair of the ICC UAE Commission on Arbitration and ADR, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Founder and Patron of its UAE Branch.

He has received the Gulf Legal Lifetime Achievement Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Financial Law Review. He is the author of a number of leading UAE dispute resolution publications, including Arbitration Law in the United Arab Emirates (1997), A Practical Guide to Litigation and Arbitration in the UAE (2003), and The Practitioner’s Guide to Arbitration in the Middle East and North Africa (2009).

Essam holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (1984) and an LL.B. from Al Ain Law School (1983), and speaks Arabic and English.