Updates and Best Practice Tips for Africa, Middle East, Caribbean and Offshore Research 2026

Please note that, following the successful trial of this approach during the 2024 research cycle, we will be sticking with the updated referee guidelines for sections in the Cayman Islands, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

In these countries, the referee limit is now 30 per law firm, per practice area but with the caveat that firms should only provide a maximum of 5 referees per referring lawyer, per practice area. Please consider which lawyer is the primary contact for each referee in each practice area, and include them in that lawyer's count of referees, noting this clearly in the ‘Referring Lawyer’ column of the referee spreadsheet (Column N). Please note that, law firms can only assign 1 lawyer to each referee on the spreadsheet (i.e. the referee’s main contact person in the department), bearing in mind that our researchers will always ask referees about every lawyer with whom they have worked during the review period. 

Law firms in Syria and the Palestinian Territories are not required to provide referees. Instead, please contact [email protected] to discuss the best way to provide updates on current work highlights.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Federico Fancelli as Research Manager and Raffaella Di Somma as Principal Research Specialist for the Middle East. Federico will be taking on oversight of all Israel research in the upcoming cycle. Raffaella’s role will see her take on responsibility for UAE research, alongside that for all other Middle Eastern jurisdictions with the exceptions of Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. She will also be the key contact person for Middle East-Wide research.

Ana Licurci will remain the principal point of contact for Anglophone and Lusophone Africa, although Kenya will now be overseen by Ollie Dimsdale. Alongside Kenya, Ollie will retain responsibility for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Africa-Wide sections.

Charline Thiebault will remain the point of contact for Mauritius, Morocco and Francophone Africa.

Please note that there are a number of ‘new’ sections open for submission in Chambers Global 2026. The below list includes sections which will be researched for the first time in the 2025 research cycle as well as others which have been introduced in the past couple of years.

Researched for the first time in 2024. This section focuses on lawyers and departments advising on the structuring, formation and launch of investment funds across all asset classes, but with a particular emphasis on private equity and hedge funds. Private equity buyouts are not primarily of interest in this section and should be submitted for Israel Corporate/M&A. The exception would be where firms are advising on the sale or acquisition of asset managers or funds themselves, rather than their portfolio companies.

New for the 2025 cycle. This section will focus on lawyers and law firms providing advice pertaining to the regulation of clinical trials as well as wider regulatory compliance issues in the pharmaceuticals and medical device industries. There will be a degree of overlap with intellectual property – specifically in areas around patenting, enforcement and protection. Product liability cases would also be relevant.

This section is open for submissions for the first time in 2025. It spans the full gamut of transactional and commercial advisory matters within the technology, media and telecoms sectors, including advice pertaining to M&A within these fields, regulatory guidance on issues such as data protection, as well as related contentious work – e.g. defamation law suits. Please contact [email protected] for further information or queries.

This section is a sub-category of our existing Middle East-Wide Projects & Energy coverage. This table focuses on the lawyers and law firms handling operational work, such as commercial contract negotiations, on behalf of clients in the oil and gas industry.

Arbitration has always been covered as part of the previous Saudi Arabia Dispute Resolution research. Going forward, we aim to divide our coverage between the teams focused on Arbitration (both international and domestic) and those handling domestic Saudi court work. Within the Arbitration category, we are primarily interested in lawyers’ roles as counsel rather than as arbitrator.

As above – this section will be the place to highlight domestic Saudi court work.

This section will focus on the financing and development of energy, infrastructure and construction projects. It will not cover disputes work – this should be put towards one of the two Saudi Disputes sections listed above.

A new category first researched in 2024. Lawyers and law firms listed here will advise the central and regional governments, government departments and government-owned entities in Saudi Arabia on the full gamut of public policy issues, including the shaping and implementation of domestic and foreign policy. Matters such as legislative drafting and the negotiation of trade and investment agreements are also covered. Greatest credit will generally be given to law firms acting on behalf of the government and its entities, but teams consistently representing private sector entities in their engagement with government entities may also be relevant.

As with our new Israel Life Sciences section, this research will focus on areas such as the regulation and approval of new pharmaceutical products and medical devices, advice pertaining to clinical trials and the resultant contentious work in fields such as product liability. Some overlap with intellectual property is expected, e.g. around the patenting and enforcement of new products.

These two sections will replace Uganda General Business Law in future editions. Uganda Dispute Resolution covers all aspects of contentious work, such as court litigation, arbitration (both international and domestic), mediation and corporate investigations. Uganda Corporate/Commercial covers all aspects of non-contentious work, including M&A, banking and finance and commercial contract advice.

This section highlights law firms active on regulatory matters in the financial services industry, including the implementation of new directives and legislation, assisting banks with the establishment of overseas branches and aspects of fintech and e-payment work. Transaction-focused regulatory advice, including with regard to mergers of banks, insurers and asset managers is also relevant.

These two sections were previously covered together as a single section (UAE TMT), but we are now inviting fully separate submissions and referee spreadsheets for each of these areas.

This section focuses on aviation finance and aviation-related dispute resolution.

These are not new sections per se, but rather they are existing categories which have been renamed. The aim is to group our two UAE shipping sections alongside the new aviation category (see above), while also bringing these sections into line with the nomenclature more commonly used in other EMEA jurisdictions.

This section focuses on corporate transactional work within the venture capital space, including investments, acquisitions and sales, as well as corporate governance matters. Lawyers and departments will typically be active on behalf of funds, investors, venture capital firms and financial institutions. Fund formation matters should not be submitted here, but instead included on the submission for Middle East-Wide Investment Funds.

While not a new table per se, law firms are now able to provide fully dedicated submissions for Zambia General Business Law: Dispute Resolution. As with other Dispute Resolution categories, this covers the full gamut of contentious work, including court litigation, arbitration, mediation and corporate investigations.