Fauri Law represents companies, investors and institutions in high-stakes commercial disputes in the UAE and across borders. The practice is built for UAE-seated arbitration — led directly by senior counsel, conducted in English and Arabic, and structured around commercial outcomes: termination, recovery and enforcement, not proceedings for their own sake.
What we handle
- Institutional arbitration. Party representation in arbitrations under the DIAC Rules and other institutional and ad hoc frameworks — from the Request for Arbitration through written submissions, hearings and final award.
- Real estate, musataha and development disputes. Termination, payment default and recovery under musataha and sub-musataha arrangements — the UAE’s long-term land development right — together with sale and purchase agreements and long-term development frameworks. Few disputes practices know this terrain from the inside; ours was built on it.
- Construction-adjacent claims. Payment, delay, variation and termination issues under FIDIC and bespoke contract forms.
- Commercial and shareholder disputes. Contractual breach, partnership and joint-venture breakdowns, and disputes involving government-related counterparties.
- Recovery and enforcement strategy. Award ratification and enforcement planning across the UAE — onshore and through the DIFC — and abroad under the New York Convention. Where court appearances are required in the UAE, the firm acts with licensed UAE advocates under its direction.
- Settlement and restructuring leverage. Negotiated outcomes, debt workouts and insolvency-informed strategy where counterparties are financially distressed.
How we work
Disputes are run the way the rest of the firm runs: partner-led, with senior judgment applied directly rather than passed down a chain. Matters proceed on a phased basis with defined budgets and caps, so cost visibility is part of the strategy, not an afterthought. The practice operates natively in English and Arabic and across both legal traditions — common law (Ontario) and civil law (Jordan), the tradition on which UAE law is built.
Who leads the work
Khaled El Fauri, Founder & Principal, leads the practice. Dual-qualified in Ontario and Jordan, he spent more than a decade in senior in-house legal leadership inside major UAE institutions, with disputes experience spanning ICC arbitration, proceedings before the English High Court resolved by settlement, adjudication, and multi-jurisdictional recovery mandates.
The practice’s senior bench combines former institutional arbitration leadership in the UAE — including direction of one of the region’s principal arbitral institutions — with decades of tribunal and counsel experience across DIAC, ICC and ADCCAC proceedings, in English and Arabic.
Representative experience
- Strategy lead in a US$250 million cross-border dispute involving seven companies across Italy, France, Austria, Jordan, the UK and the US.
- A US$120 million investment dispute and a US$6 million aviation dispute — both resolved by settlement, with English High Court proceedings discontinued.
- A US$100 million ICC arbitration — hearings and written submissions as part of the counsel team.
- A US$3.6 million arbitration concluded with a US$1.5 million settlement.
- Adjudication and more than 25 negotiated settlements across Middle East real-estate projects, within an aggregate ~US$350 million investment portfolio.
Where we act
In the UAE, the practice operates from Abu Dhabi and represents parties in UAE-seated arbitrations, including DIAC proceedings seated in Dubai; onshore court steps are conducted with licensed UAE advocates under the firm’s direction. In Canada, Ontario qualification supports Canadian-side coordination, including recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.
If a dispute calls for senior judgment — in the UAE, in Canada, or across both — discuss it with us, confidentially.