Salloum & Partners LLC is a boutique law firm, first established in Abu Dhabi in 1980 as Samir A. Salloum Law Firm. In the years since we have evolved to become a leading player in the Emirati legal world, with both local and cross-jurisdictional expertise.
As one of the oldest and most prominent law firms in the region, we pride ourselves on providing a comprehensive range of legal services to our clients, which include corporations, individuals, and local and foreign government entities. The varied composition of our client-base reflects the depth and breadth of our experience - developed over three decades in which we have represented and advised on a complex range of legal issues, in matters as diverse as employment, architecture and design, construction, mergers and acquisitions, franchising, corporate finance, intellectual property and international trade. To complement all of this, we also retain a highly renowned dispute resolution practice.
Whatever legal support you need, our focus at Salloum & Partners LLC is simple: to provide consistently high quality service and advice, underpinned by an unrivalled understanding of the unique cultural and commercial environment of the UAE.
Our firm’s story starts with that of our founder and managing partner, Mr. Samir Salloum. Mr. Salloum’s legal career began in Beirut, Lebanon, where he studied and qualified in the late ‘60’s. After acquiring experience, he set up a law firm in that city in 1974. However, its nascent growth was interrupted as the Lebanese Civil War began, with his office burned and home shelled. With deep regret, he therefore had to leave, and so, in the summer of 1976, in the dead of night, he boarded a small dinghy, together with seven or eight others, in search of a better future.
After several hours at sea he made port on the Syrian coastline and then found passage to Damascus, where he tried to contact various relatives across the World by Telex. The messages never reached their intended targets.
Sensing his destiny might lie in the UAE, he took a flight to Abu Dhabi, where he touched down with just 300 Dirhams in his pocket. After three months of trying to find full-time employment, his command of the French language secured him an engagement as a translator for a meeting between the then head of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ADCCI) and a French architect. The ADCCI president was so impressed that he appointed him as in-house legal counsel for the ADCCI. Mr. Salloum went on to serve as acting-director of the ADCCAC on multiple occasions.
Four years later, Mr. Salloum established Samir A Salloum Law Firm. He continued to serve as in-house legal advisor to the ADCCI on a part-time basis for a further ten years, with his firm remaining the ADCCI’s external legal counsel for many years thereafter. With an initial focus on civil and commercial litigation, Mr. Salloum incrementally expanded the firm’s activities to include the full range of legal consultancy and transactional services we offer today.
Mr. Salloum has developed longstanding working relationships with a number of foreign embassies during the more than 42 years in which he has worked in the Emirates and, in recognition of the exceptional service and dedication he has provided in these partnerships, and to individuals and businesses within the wider expatriate community, he has been honored with an array of medals and awards from a wide range of countries including France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and The Vatican.
In order to reflect our modern offering, our firm was restructured and rebranded in 2013 from Samir A Salloum Law Firm to form Salloum & Partners LLC.
Our clients often ask us how we came about our logo. The idea was born from a discussion around the personal significance that the month of July – Tammuz in Arabic – has to our founder and managing partner, Mr. Samir Salloum: it being the one in which he first came to the UAE, and that in which his son, Mr. Ziad Salloum, was subsequently married.
The etymology of the Arabic word, itself, appears to derive from the ancient Mesopotamian mythological figure of Tammuz, whose influence spread to Lebanon. Tammuz represented fertility, the changing of the seasons, and the endless cycle of life, death and rebirth. One of his emblems was the hard-working bee.
The symbolism, therefore, seemed perfect: a way to honour our founder’s ancestral home, while acknowledging thanks for new beginnings, all in a manner that speaks to our work ethic and the services we provide as we support our clients through every stage of the life-cycle, from setup through to dissolution, and otherwise help them overcome adversity – and so find new life.
In over thirty years of service Salloum & Partners have built up an extensive network of relationships with leading firms across the globe. In order to provide a comprehensive range of services to our clients, we are therefore able to instruct a select panel of prestigious international firms and counsel in cross-jurisdictional matters in leading legal and financial centres such as London, Paris, Tokyo and New York.
In London, for example, this includes the Outer Temple Chambers, a very well-known and established set of barristers, at which our founder, Mr Samir Salloum, and his son, Mr Ziad Salloum, are both professional associates.
Salloum & Partners LLC is a proud member of the International Lawyers Network (ILN), an association of over 91 high-quality, full-service law firms with more than 5,000 lawyers located in 67 countries on 6 continents.
One of our partners, Mr Ziad Salloum, is currently serving his second consecutive 3-year term on the Board of Directors of the ILN, which was shortlisted as global network of the year at THE LAWYER’s European Awards in both 2016 and 2017.