About us
The firm
Karim Adel Law Office (the Office) is an Egyptian law firm, which was established in 1939 by the late Dr. Saba Habashi as a pioneer law office in the field of International Business Law. Dr. Saba Habashi was a former judge in the Egyptian courts, and he got his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He was appointed as a minister of trade and industry by King Farouk. As Minister he enacted the first trademark law (law No. 57 of 1939). Then, he started his work as a private lawyer in 1939 by establishing our office. As he mastered the English and the French languages, he was appointed by the largest multinational companies in Egypt such as Aramco, Coca Cola and Hilton. In 1947 he was the first Egyptian and, in fact Middle Easterner, to pass the New York Bar Exam in 1947. After the Suez crisis in 1956, he declared his position that he was against the nationalization of the Suez Canal and he left Egypt for the USA, while he remained a major partner at this office.
In 1961, after the nationalization and the start of the socialist era in Egypt, the Office came under the management of his partner Mr. Adel Kamel. During the Sixties and the early Seventies of the last century, the Office suffered a lot under the socialism and political situations of Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime.
The Office suffered a lot to survive, as there was no further foreign direct investment until the enactment of the first incentive for investment law in 1974. However, the Office sustained and overcame these difficult times.
In 2000, the management of the Office passed to Mr. Karim Adel Kamel, who studied law in Egypt (LL.B. Ain Shams University), (LL.M. “IDAI” from Cairo University jointly with Paris Dauphine) and the USA (LL.M. from the Washington College of Law at the American University, in Washington DC, USA). In addition, Mr. Karim Adel Kamel was trained in the largest law firms in Paris and New York.The Office witnessed a real growth during the years 2000 to 2010 and was modernized in order to be able to offer the best legal services to its clients with international quality standards.
After the revolution of January 2011, the business of the office suffered due to the political and economic situation in Egypt.
Recently, in 2015, Dr. Christian Ule, a German attorney admitted in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, since 1995 and admitted before the DIFC Courts in Dubai since 2012, joined the Office. Due to Dr. Ule’s wide Middle Eastern as well as European expertise, the Office started a new wave of modernizing its practice and focuses on foreign investors in Egypt.
In brief, since its establishment, the Office has offered a full and comprehensive range of legal services in Arabic, English, German, Spanish and French languages to a wide variety of multinational companies and Egyptian entrepreneurs operating in Egypt. These legal services are delivered in a high standard of professional service to its clients. The Office is very accustomed to working with other law offices in Egypt and other international law firms, in order to achieve a successful outcome for its clients. The Office is a safe and reliable choice for anyone in need of legal assistance, as it has been proven for over 80 years.
about us
achievements
COMMERCIAL, CORPORATE AND M&A
Karim Adel Law OfficeKarim Adel Law Office's name partner Karim Adel has more than 25 years' experience in the M&A market. His growing workload for international companies included setting up a local office for Fidia Pharma. German-qualified consultant Christian Ule is also recommended.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION: ARBITRATION
Karim Adel Law OfficeKarim Adel Law Office joins the ranking due to the growing caseload of name partner Karim Adel. He recently advised German company Eibe on an international arbitration. He also sat as chairman in a CRCICA arbitration involving a global telecoms company.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION: LITIGATION
Karim Adel Law OfficeKarim Adel Law Office has a strong presence in the hotel and tourism sector, which leads to significant disputes for international clients such as Marriott International. Karim Adel recently handled a court case for German supplier of artificial turf and synthetic surfaces Polytan.
EMPLOYMENT
Karim Adel Law OfficeAt Karim Adel Law Office, Bishoy Safwat leads the employment practice, which counts many hospitality businesses including Marriott Cairo and Intercontinental Semiramis among its clients. The firm also advised Bosch Siemens on employment contracts.
The Office represented the Egyptian Shareholders in the Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA) of their shares in an Egyptian technology company to a French Company. This representation included the negotiation and the drafting of the SPA and all related agreements. Also, the Office achieved the completion arrangements including the Extraordinary General Meeting and the General Meeting, the amendments of the Article of Association, the recording of the shareholders ledgers for the transfer of the shares, and the commercial registry amendments.
A judgment was rendered by the South Cairo First Instant Court in favor of our client, in regards of a claim for a huge amount of US$ 20,008,000 (twenty million and eight thousand USD) as indemnity for a boat accident. The Office succeeded in the appeal case to reduce the indemnity amount to US$ 20,000 (twenty thousand US Dollars).
The Office established legal entities in Egypt for foreign direct investments such as Pertonas Egypt (branch), Parsons Egypt (LLC), Alan Dick North Africa (LLC), Schick Egypt (LLC), Coface Egypt (SAE), Bostik Egypt (SAE), TROX TIBA (SAE), Phoenix Contact (LLC), FIDIA Egypt (OPC) and PERI Egypt (branch). In addition, the office established a huge number of companies established by Egyptians.
The Office negotiated and drafted many hotel management agreements and hotel lease agreements on behalf of owners and operators such as the Hilton hotels on behalf of Hilton, Valtur Hotel on behalf of the owner Tower Group, all lease agreements of Tropicana hotels in Sharm, lease agreement of AA Amwaj hotel, management agreements on behalf of the operator Resta hotels in Yemen Republic, and a lease agreement on behalf of the operator Savita Hotel.
The Office negotiated and drafted many hotel management termination agreements and hotels lease agreements on behalf of Hilton Hotels, on behalf of the owner of Conrad Sahrm ElSheikh, on behalf of the operator of AA Amwaj in Sharm, on behalf of the operator of Royal Grand Azur Hotel in Sharm, on behalf of the operator of Tropicana Sea Beach Hotel in Sharm.
The Office succeeded in repossessing a hotel after being invaded by the owner during the lease term and collected an indemnity amount for the operator due to a favorable arbitration award.
The Office succeeded in settling many court cases and arbitration cases between owners and hotel operators one of them was filed before the London Court of International Arbitration. In addition, we helped our client to overcome the touristic crisis in the last 3 years following the revolution by helping them to renegotiate their lease and management agreements prior resorting to the courts or the arbitration.
The Office succeeded to win the case filed against a large Swiss bank "the UBS Bank" for an amount of US$ 14 million in a record of time.
The Office finalized the sale purchase agreement of a large hotel company in Sharm to an Arab consortium for the amount of US$ 80 million.
The Office was appointed by Tropicana Hotels to review all its labor regulations and agreements to conform with the applicable standards applied by the Hotel multinational companies.
The Office conducted all due diligence for: (i) the assets purchased as well as drafted the 'asset purchase agreement' on behalf of Coface Egypt, a subsidiary of the French Company Coface; and (ii) WABAG Ltd. for purchasing an Egyptian – German joint venture company in the field of potable water plants.
The Office represented Hard Rock Egypt for the negotiation and the draft of the Hard rock Café Restaurant franchise agreement with the American franchisor Hard rock International. In addition, the office drafted the restaurant lease agreements between Hard rock Egypt and the restaurant owners.
The Office negotiated on behalf of the Egyptian party in regard to a shareholder agreement and other related agreements such as a trademark license agreement, a lease agreement and exclusivity agreement for the incorporation of a joint company venture with an Italian company (Pelliconi Egypt).
The Office acted as a local counselor to Edison International regarding the Petroleum Concession Agreements for the AbuQir field. This concession agreement was described by the Minister of Petroleum as "the Deal of the Century". Edison paid to the Egyptian Government an amount of 1.4 billion US Dollars as a grant.
The Office handled all labor, supply, and concession agreements (advise and court cases) for many operating hotels in Egypt such as the Marriott, Intercontinental hotels, and other local operators.
The acquisition of an Egyptian manufacturing company working in the plastic field by an Emirati Company through 3 offshore companies.
Establishing the subsidiary (an OPC) of Italian pharmaceutical Company Fidia Farmaceutici and amending its commercial agency agreement in Egypt to be a non- exclusive commercial agency agreement.
Establishing STEAG (German energy company) and Acerinox (Spanish steel company) representative offices.
Establishing a joint venture company for manufacturing .... for TROX GmbH together with drafting a joint venture agreement, employment agreements, lease agreements and applying for the import license.
In 2019, Karim Adel was appointed as a chairman in 4 arbitration cases and as a co-arbitrator in 2 cases at the Cairo Regional Center of International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA). Also, Karim Adel acted as a counselor in many arbitration cases among them, he achieved a favorable result for EIBE, a German company, and currently, he is representing the owner in a construction case of a total amount of US$ 40 million.
