Bassam MIRZA

Bassam Mirza is a lawyer at the Paris and the Beirut Bars. He has over 20 years of experience as counsel in international arbitration proceedings and complex cross-border disputes including annulment proceedings of arbitral awards before the Paris Court of Appeal. He also regularly sits as arbitrator (president, co-arbitrator or sole arbitrator) in international ad hoc and institutional arbitrations conducted in English, French or Arabic and subject to wide range of applicable laws notably from the Arab and African countries. He was a lecturer of French and Lebanese civil law at the Faculty of Law of Saint-Joseph University in Beirut from 2014 to 2020.

Bassam Mirza, who is based in Paris, is a co-founder of Kecsmar Mirza Arbitration (previously Pellerin Kecsmar Mirza) an international arbitration network with offices in Paris, Beirut and Budapest (www.km-arbitration.com).

Prior to that, he practised international arbitration and litigation in Paris for more than seven years at prestigious international law firms (Linklaters LLP and Gide Loyrette Nouel) and then headed the international arbitration practice group of a leading Middle Eastern law firm based in Beirut with offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Having practised in both Europe and the Middle East, Bassam Mirza acquired significant experience of international arbitration and complex cross-border disputes covering various industries such as energy, mining, construction and engineering, telecommunications, distribution, corporate and project finance.

Bassam Mirza is a member of the French Arbitration Committee and the ICC Arab Arbitration Group, referenced as arbitrator on the ICC France list of arbitrators, representative of Lebanon on the Panel of Conciliators maintained by ICSID (from 2016 to 2022), member of the administrative committee of the Lebanese and International Arbitration Center and member of the ICC Task Force on addressing issues of corruption in international arbitration.

He graduated in law from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut and holds a postgraduate degree in international law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas as well as a postgraduate degree in litigation, arbitration and ADR from the same university.

He is recognized by Who’s Who Legal Arbitration as a Global Leader having an “outstanding legal knowledge”, as “a great arbitrator who prepares his cases carefully” and as “a strong technician who provides very thorough analysis on substantial aspects of Lebanese law”. He also features in the Legal500 International Arbitration Powerlist for France.