Simon El Kai

Practice Areas

Corporate Law ● Mergers & Acquisitions ● Licensing, Agency and Distributorships ● Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals ● Dispute Resolution ● Intellectual Property ● Media ● Employment and Benefits ● Real Estate and Construction

Career

Simon El Kai is a partner at Abou Jaoude & Associates Law Firm. He co-heads the Corporate practice and heads the Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals practice. He previously worked at two reputable law firms in Lebanon, and at the international law firm Shearman & Sterling in Paris.

Simon has more than 25 years of experience and an extensive multidisciplinary expertise covering advisory, transactional and dispute-resolution matters. Simon has profound industry knowledge of the pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and distributorships sectors, having represented notable pharmaceutical groups and diversified conglomerates.

He has an established record advising major local, regional, and international clients on the legal aspects of their business, including regulatory compliance, corporate governance, intellectual property matters, tax issues, employment law, corporate structurings and restructurings, capitalizations, private equity acquisitions and divestments, and a wide spectrum of commercial agreements and transactions. His experience includes advising on acquisitions and disposals of all types of real estate properties in Lebanon, as well as on private and commercial lease agreements.

Simon has a broad disputes practice with considerable experience representing clients across industries in high-stake civil, commercial and penal litigation before all court levels, as well as in arbitration cases.

Simon is consistently recognized by prominent international directories, including Chambers & Partners in ‘Corporate & Finance’, and The Legal 500 in the practice areas of ‘Commercial, Corporate and M&A’ and ‘Dispute Resolution’.

Simon’s recent notable representative experience can be viewed here: https://www.ajalawfirm.com/Lawyers/40/simon-el-kai.

Professional Memberships

• Admitted to the Beirut Bar Association.

• Member of the International Bar Association.

Publications

• Co-author of the current Lebanon chapter of the ‘Inward Investment & International Taxation Review’ published by The Law Reviews and edited by Latham & Watkins USA.

• Contributor to the current World Bank Lebanon Doing Business Reports on ‘Starting a Business’.

• Co-author of the Lebanon chapter of the 2018 ‘Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Review’ published by The Law Reviews and edited by Latham & Watkins USA.

Personal

• LLB (Bachelor of Laws), Saint-Joseph University, Lebanon.

• Advanced Graduate Degree (DEA) in Private Law, University of Paris II-Assas, France.

• Masters of Laws (LLM), Columbia University, USA.