Nayla COMAIR - OBEID

Professor Dr Comair-Obeid is the founding partner of Obeid & Partners and heads the firm's dispute resolution practice since 1987. She is an Associate Member at 3VB Barristers Chambers in London, and member of the Beirut Bar and the Paris Bar.
Prof Comair-Obeid has been identified amongst the world’s foremost arbitrator practitioners by internationally renowned legal publications, referring to her as "grand dame of Middle East arbitration", "legendary lawyer" who is "really prepared, knows the issues and gets it right".
She has been actively involved in more than 170 domestic and international investment and complex commercial arbitrations as a party appointed arbitrator, chairperson, sole arbitrator, counsel and expert in Arabic, French and English-language. She has been engaged in mega construction projects in the MENA and have developed an expertise and knowledge of complex construction disputes in the region. She regularly deals with contracts based on FIDIC forms of contract with Sharia law influences and has extensive knowledge in the legal principles of the applicable substantive law in the MENA region. Through her comparative legal expertise and technical skills, she performed with professional excellence and gained the reputation of a specialist in this industry. She has been identified Arbitrator Intelligence’s Presiding Arbitrator of the Year for 2020.
Throughout her career, Professor Comair-Obeid has held and continues to hold pre-eminent positions in many of the major institutions. She is the former Vice Chair of the ICC and has been a member ICC Executive Board since 2019. She is a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Governing Board. Additionally, Professor Comair-Obeid is currently a trustee of the Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration. She is a Board Member of Women’s Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School, amongst others. She is former president of the CIArb (2017) and former Vice Chair of the arbitration committee in the International Bar Association.
Professor Dr Comair-Obeid publishes prolifically and is regularly invited to lecture at world renowned academic institutions where her articles and scholarly publications are often cited as reference works.
Professor Comair-Obeid is also a Professor of private law and international arbitration at the Lebanese University, visiting Professor at University Panthéon-Assas Paris II, and lecturer at University of Oxford for the CIArb International Commercial Arbitration Diploma.