Three Crowns has hired Freshfields’ Saudi Arabia disputes head Amani Khalifa as a partner in its Dubai International Financial Centre office, strengthening its construction and infrastructure arbitration practice nine months after opening in the DIFC.
Khalifa, who will join on 1 January, expands the arbitration boutique’s capacity across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia as international firms continue to invest in disputes capability in the United Arab Emirates.
An arbitration specialist, Khalifa handles high-value, complex disputes across the Middle East. Her practice covers the energy, sports, transport and infrastructure sectors, and arbitrations under all the major institutional rules.
She will join after seven years at Freshfields, including three as a partner, having led the firm’s Saudi Arabia disputes practice. She becomes the latest Freshfields alum to join the Three Crowns partnership.
Before joining Freshfields, she ran her own firm, Khalifa, for five years in the UAE, following six years as a senior associate at Hafez Avocats.
Khalifa is qualified in Egypt, England and Wales, and New York, and is fluent in Arabic and English. She is also a judge of the Bahrain Court of Cassation, a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and vice president of the LCIA Arab Users’ Council.
Khalifa said: “The opportunity to join Three Crowns’ growing team in the region was too good to refuse. The firm’s elite position, dedicated focus on international arbitration and calibre of its lawyers make it a natural home to grow my practice.”
Writing on LinkedIn, she added: “I could not be more thrilled to be joining such a highly regarded team with such a strong and growing presence across the Middle East.”
Manish Aggarwal, managing partner of Three Crowns’ DIFC office, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Amani to the partnership. From the outset, our ambition for the DIFC office has been to build a specialist team of the highest calibre for the region’s most significant disputes. We have been deliberate about how we grow, and Amani embodies that ambition.”
He added: “She is a first-rate advocate, with deep construction and infrastructure expertise, experience across common and civil law traditions, and exceptional standing across the Middle East.”
London partner Reza Mohtashami KC, who has a strong Middle East practice, said: “I have known Amani for 15 years and have seen her become a formidable practitioner over that time. Her poise, legal acumen and cultural awareness have always impressed me, and I am delighted that we will be working together on some of the firm’s most important mandates.”
Founding partner Jan Paulsson, president of the Bahrain International Commercial Court and a judge of the Bahrain Court of Cassation, said: “Amani is an exceptional addition to the Three Crowns team, brilliant, sophisticated and thorough, fully bilingual and always helpful.
“Those who have the good fortune of sitting with her occasionally in a judicial capacity, producing judgments in English but subject to the civil law applicable in Bahrain, count their lucky stars.”
ExxonMobil senior counsel for international disputes Tom Sikora described Khalifa as “an absolutely exceptional disputes specialist”.
He added: “She brings deep expertise and strategic insight to commercial and investment disputes in the Middle East and especially in Egypt, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, where she has lived and practised extensively.”
Three Crowns opened its DIFC office in January, its sixth worldwide, under Aggarwal. Founded in 2014, the specialist firm also has offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Singapore and Washington DC.
The firm relocated the team to larger premises in September following its expansion. Its regional caseload includes representing Pakistan in arbitration proceedings concerning a delayed cross-border gas pipeline with Iran.
Khalifa’s move follows other partner investment in the UAE disputes market. Mishcon de Reya hired Charlotte Bijlani and two disputes lawyers from Watson Farley & Williams in June as co-head of its UAE disputes practice, after Bushra Ahmed joined from KBH in March.
Trowers & Hamlins, meanwhile, recruited construction arbitration specialist Magda Kofluk from Stephenson Harwood in Dubai last October, after Stephenson Harwood opened in Saudi Arabia last year.
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