Ziad Obeid is the Managing Partner of Obeid & Partners, a dual-qualified lawyer with a background in civil engineering and extensive cross-border experience acquired through legal practice in Europe and the Middle East. His practice spans cases involving bilateral investment treaties, international legal instruments, and contractual provisions across sectors such as real estate, reinsurance, construction, oil and gas, nuclear energy, power generation, and telecommunications. He regularly serves as counsel, sole arbitrator, chairperson, or co-arbitrator in complex arbitrations conducted in Arabic, French, and English—both ad hoc and under leading institutional rules—covering a broad range of applicable laws from within and beyond the MENA region.
In litigation, Ziad has extensive experience managing complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and large-scale international commercial cases. He has represented foreign states, major public law entities, and multinational corporations before Lebanese courts in high-stakes proceedings involving intricate jurisdictional and substantive issues. His work includes the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and judgments, enforcement of asset preservation and anti-suit orders, worldwide freezing injunctions, and cross-border asset recovery and fraud investigations.
Ziad serves as Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) – Lebanon Branch, Fellow of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers, and a member of the ICC Task Force responsible for revising the ADR, Expertise, and Dispute Resolution Rules. He also sits on the Editorial Board of the ICC Bulletin and is Co-Chair of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Users Council Committee for the Middle East.
Before joining Obeid & Partners, Ziad worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Paris and Dubai, where he advised on multi-million dollar disputes under ICSID, UNCITRAL, LCIA, and ICC rules, particularly in the construction, energy, and telecommunications sectors.
Ziad holds a Graduate Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from Queen Mary University of London, with a focus on construction and energy disputes, a Master’s degree in Civil Law from Université Paris II – Panthéon-Assas, and both a Bachelor of Laws and a Master’s in Lebanese Law from the Lebanese University. He also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the American University of Beirut and completed an Executive Education program at Harvard Law School.
Fluent in English, French, and Arabic, Ziad is qualified to practice law in both Beirut and Paris and is licensed by the Legal Affairs Department in Dubai.
