A.F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm

Managing Partners: Raja Shehadeh, Nadeem Shehadeh, Kareem Shehadeh, Aziz Shehadeh
Number of lawyers: 10
Languages: Arabic, English, French, Hebrew

Firm Overview:
Founded in 1935 in the coastal city of Jaffa, A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm is a Ramallah based law firm, and is one of the oldest, leading, and best-known law firms in Palestine with lawyers who are members of the American, British and Palestinian Bar Associations. It is a big firm by local standards consisting of 10 lawyers and a strong trilingual support team. The firm’s lawyers offer responsive, timely and focused advice. The firm has unrivalled experience in all corporate matters relating to both local and foreign private and public companies. Lawyers extensively advise on shareholder rights and agreements, management responsibilities, IPOs and secondary offerings. Other areas of practice include corporate and commercial advising, capital markets, banking and project finance, international business transactions, energy including renewable and natural resources, intellectual property and litigation in all Palestinian courts, and dispute resolution. The firm has associates in many countries.

Based on interviews with clients and competitors, Chambers and Partners Legal Publishers, The World’s Leading Lawyers 2003 edition, page 879 published the following:
■ “The most prestigious and professional firm in the West Bank. It is a family run practice with an intellectual reputation, which offers wide- ranging corporate advice to international clients in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French. The firm is seen in banking and property matters and has a niche representing foreign investors in the energy sector”
■ “The Lawyers: Renowned writer-lawyer Raja Shehadeh and senior partner Fuad Shehadeh are key contact partners”
■ “Other Partners include: Nadeem Shehadeh, JD, member of the Utah State Bar 1991, American Bar Association & Palestinian Bar Association. Kareem Shehadeh, JD, member of the Palestinian Bar Association”

Chambers and Partners Legal Publishers, The World’s Leading Lawyers 2004-05 edition, page 1142 published the following:
■ “The Lawyers: Senior Partner Fuad Shehadeh is the brains behind the firm. Well connected in business and political circles, he is described by interviewees as an amazing practitioner who knows his law. Raja Shehadeh gained plaudits for his role as a writer, whilst Nadeem Shehadeh was said to come up with innovative solutions to tricky problems”

A number of distinguished judges in the judicial system received their lawyer training at the firm; some of the senior and most successful lawyers currently practicing in the West Bank also trained at A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm. Three members are licensed as legal translators by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice from the English language into the Arabic language and vice-versa.

Main Areas of Practice:
A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm has a national reputation in energy law, having represented international oil and gas companies in the energy industry since well before the beginning of the 21st century. Today, the firm maintains a continuing awareness of statutory, judicial and regulatory pronouncements and policies affecting businesses engaged in utility industries such as natural gas, electric power, renewable energy and telecommunications.

The firm represents a number of leading local and international institutions. It has acted for a number of multimillion-dollar projects including the Bethlehem 2000 Millennium Project, and the Gaza power Generating Company. In view of the worldwide ‘GO GREEN’ initiative, the firm has been heavily involved in developing the renewable energy sector both domestically and internationally. It has represented the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank in a number of its projects in Palestine involving water, electricity, local government, housing finance, drafting of laws, and renewable energy projects. It has advised on the merger of banks and on issues relative to the issuance of bonds and share-swap transactions. It acts as the attorney for various production plants. For a number of decades it acted as honorary counsel for the British Consulate in Jerusalem and has also been acting for a number of diplomatic missions including the Canadian, Irish, Danish, Brazilian, South African and Australian representative offices to Palestine.

Clients:
The firm acts as the attorney for major local and international non-governmental organisations including the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, SOS-Kinderdorf International, and Palestine Association for Children’s Encouragement of Sports (PACES). It also represents a number of major national and international companies and banks including the National Insurance Company, HSBC Bank Middle East, Nestlé S.A, National Beverage Company; the Bottler of the Coca Cola Products. The firm has also helped in drafting the Industrial Estates Law. Moreover, the firm has been representing the following international companies in certain fields in Palestine: Addi- das AG, AT&T Corporation, Astellas Pharma Inc., Bacardi & Company Limited, Baker & McKenzie LLP, Chrysler LLC, Colgate Palmolive Company, Domino’s Pizza Inc., Federal Express Corporation, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Fila fareastltd, Glaxo Group Limited, Henkel KGaA, British Gas, Lucent international Inc., MasterCard International Incorporated, Mcdonald’s Corporation, Mercedes-Benz Aklengesell scaft, Novartis AG, Puma A.G., Rolex SA, Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, The Gillette Company, The Mennen Company, Volkswagen AG, Google Inc., and Apple Inc.

A. F. & R. Shehadeh Law Firm’s Social Contribution:
The firm’s social policy is to allocate time to its members to help certain social projects that make it possible to benefit local Palestinian society and bring sustainability to small, local and cultural projects, free of charge, whenever possible. The firm had a large role in the establishment of the first human rights organisation in Palestine and the Arab region, al Haq, and the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists during the most difficult times. This came at very high price because the Authority was disgruntled with these efforts. Raja Shehadeh, one of the senior partners was the organisation’s voluntary co-director for over 13 years.