Founded in 1912 by Abdel Fattah El Shalakany, the President of the Egyptian Bar Association in the 1950s, the Firm has achieved a record of success and growth that today makes it the longest established Firm and one of the leading Firms in Egypt and the Middle East. With over 60 attorneys and counselors, including 17 partners; as well as 12 paralegals and a support staff of over 80 qualified professionals, the Firm provides quality legal services to a broad base of multinational, regional and premium local clients through its offices in Cairo, Alexandria and Dubai.

The Firm strives to provide personalized and efficient quality services across a broad spectrum of fields of practice including aviation, banking, corporate, mergers & acquisitions, project finance, public private partnerships, construction, commercial agencies, capital market transactions, telecommunications, anti-trust, information technology, intellectual property, oil and gas, manufacturing, tax, insurance, construction and labour law. The Firm is a leader in Egypt in respect of BOT and PPP projects. The Firm’s Hotels and Tourism practice is unique in terms of its depth and experience. The Firm has one of the best dispute resolution teams in Egypt with more than 25 litigation attorneys. The Firm handles annually over 800 on-going cases before all levels and types of courts. In international commercial arbitration the Firm has a long record of success spanning three decades.

Some of our Representative Clients
The Firm's client base includes IBM, Sony, Emaar, General Motors, Skanska, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, BNP Paribas, National Societe Generale Bank, Unilever, Pfizer, Bechtel, Schlumberger, Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, Nokia, Chloride, Citadel Capital, EFG Hermes, Centaurus Capital, CIB, Tecnicas Reunidas, Oberoi, Accor Hotels, Henkel and AMLAK Finance.


Shalakany Law Office has been instrumental in developing the legal and regulatory banking environment through actively participating in development of the Banking Law passed in 2003 and amended in 2004 and 2005, as well as all related laws and regulations.

The Firm has represented lenders and borrowers in major financial transactions which took place in Egypt during the last 25 years and set precedents and standard practice in this field. Our law firm was the first to mortgage aircraft in Egypt in the early 1980’s and set the standard practice prevailing today. Moreover, the Firm played a key role in the development of capital market regulations, particularly the recent tender offer rules.

The Firm has contributed to the project of redrafting the Telecommunications Law which was issued in 2003, in addition to reviewing the laws and regulations that govern the telecommunications sector in Egypt along with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt. The Firm has also been the legal advisor of the Federation of Egyptian Industries for many years, assisting it in drafting and reviewing draft laws affecting the business environment in Egypt.

The Firm produced the authorized Arabic translation of the FIDIC Red Book (Contract for Civil Works – 4th edition) and the White Book (Conditions of Contract for Construction for Building and Engineering Works Designed by the Employer – 1st edition 1999). By request from the Egyptian Construction Business Chamber, the Firm also prepared a model contract drafted in Arabic to be used for civil works in medium sized projects.

Shalakany Law Office has adopted several human rights and women's rights cases on a pro-bono basis with the aim of creating significant precedents or changing discriminatory provisions of certain laws. One of the examples is the Nationality Law which discriminated against the children of Egyptian mothers and another case is taking the defense of Prof Nasr Abu Zeid who has been persecuted for his scholarly work on re-reading the holy texts. We also act for a number of local charitable organizations including the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer, SOS projects in Egypt and the Women’s Health Improvement Association. We consider our dedication to providing legal services to Non-governmental organizations and other charitable institutions gratis, as a demonstration of our firm's commitment to the advancement of civil society as part of Egypt's development.

Shalakany Law Office is an equal opportunity employer for legal and non-legal posts. It is the policy of the Firm, from recruitment through employment and promotion, partnership consideration, training, and work assignments, to provide equal opportunities at all times without regard to religion, color, race or gender.


Shalakany Law Office is praised by various prestigious legal publications for possessing the “best quality of Egyptian law” with a team at “the top of the tree”. The excellent reputation of our “very bright” practitioners transcends borders, attracting the best clients in the Middle East and beyond. With its excellent connections and efficient institutional structure, Shalakany Law Office is considered the premier domestic firm. The firm strives to provide personalized and effective top quality services to its clients in a large variety of corporate fields that are tailored to fit its clients’ needs, as demonstrated by our string of successful deals in fields such as banking, mergers & acquisitions, and IPOs, and, importantly, in private-public partnerships, thus establishing on a variety of levels the firm's commitment to the promotion of rule of law and economic development of Egypt and the Middle East as a whole.

The year 2007 witnessed the successful conclusion of several landmark deals in which the Firm played a leading and instrumental role. Such transactions included complex international dimensions and had a positive effect on Egypt and the MENA region as a whole.

Shalakany Law Office has lead the Egyptian legal field in developing several key areas of corporate law that are new to the emerging Egyptian market in particular the capital market and banking laws and regulations. We have managed to bridge the legislative vacuum in various areas in the fields of banking, mergers & acquisitions and new financing products. For example, the Firm is recognized as being the only firm that has advised and issued opinions on derivatives products particularly in 2007. Further, the Firm has succeeded in 2007 in introducing the first few Employee Stock Option Plan programs for several listed companies in Egypt, and obtained the Capital Market Authority’s approvals of such plans. This set the trend and the model in the market and opened the way for other programs to follow suit.

The Firm acted in 2006/2007 as the legal advisor for the Government of Egypt in several Public Private Partnerships (“PPP”) projects and drafted the related Tender Documents and Contracts for the “Design, Build and Operation” of the West Delta Irrigation System on behalf of the Egyptian Ministry for Water Resources and Irrigation. The Firm has been selected in 2007 as the legal counsel to the Egyptian Ministry of Transport in the new Cairo 10th of Ramadan City Rail Line Project.

Moreover, the Litigation and Arbitration Department within the Firm consists of approximately 25 counsellors and attorneys including 6 partners. We pride ourselves on being disciplined and systems orientated in the way we handle our cases. We appreciate that one of the main problems facing corporate clients in Egypt, and elsewhere, is that it is difficult to gauge and judge the value of the legal advice and service provided in litigation issues. Thus, we have set up our Litigation Department and our methodology of work in such a way as to ensure that each case will get full professional attention and service. At present the Litigation Department handles an average of 800 cases per annum. Records show that the Firm has attained favourable judgements at an average exceeding 90% of the cases handled.

Shalakany Law Office prides itself on being one of the first law firms in Egypt to develop specialized expertise in commercial arbitration. Since the early 1970s, the Firm has been involved in many of the major arbitration cases in Egypt, which include the Pyramids Plateau arbitrations, the Cairo Metro arbitrations, the Ahmad Hamdy Suez Canal Tunnel arbitration and the Isna Barrage arbitration. On average, the Firm handles about 6-8 new arbitration cases annually. For this purpose, the Firm has established a specialized Arbitration Group comprising a team of partners and senior associates. Apart from arbitration procedures and advocacy and other skills required, members of the Arbitration Group, following the introduction of the Egyptian Arbitration Law No. 27 of 1994, have also, through the Group's specialized arbitration practice, become leading experts in negotiation of settlement agreements and enforcement procedures through attachments, injunctions, and other court procedures related to arbitration.