Dr Mohamed Raffa is an accomplished national and international dispute resolution professional. He is prominently recognized and respected for his broad range of professional experience involving complex financial and banking international arbitration. He is also a distinguished academic member of economic and law faculties in the United States, UK and Middle East. Mohamed lectured Economics and Banking at Pittsburgh University while preparing for his first Doctorate Degree in Economics in 1985 and currently lectures Arbitration and International Commercial Law at Cambridge University and University of East London. Mohamed holds a PhD of Economics from Pittsburgh University and a second PhD in Arbitration Law from University of East London. He is a sought-after speaker and frequent lecturer on complex financial and commercial disputes resolution. Dr. Raffa maintains prominent leadership roles in multiple organizations, including PRIME Finance, Member of International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is proficient in French, Arabic, English and Italian.
Dr Raffa serves as an adjunct Lecturer teaching International Law at University of East London as well as full time Module Leader and Lecturer of Law at CU London.
Dr Raffa is the Senior Partner at Raffa Ebeid Lawyers. REL is a Law Firm established 75 years ago in 1958 by Rt. Hon Judge Said Raffa (Supreme Court Judge in Egypt). Raffa Ebeid specialises in Banking and Financial Dispute Resolution involving inter-banks and complex corporate financial disputes. During the crisis of 2008, Raffa and Ebeid sole function was arbitrating disputes resulting from the fall down of the Financial Crisis.
Mohamed is also pioneering a project to establish a Chambers to solely conduct benevolent arbitration disputes for small claims and illiquid disputants. The Chambers will allow newly qualified CIArb members to assist, prepare, and sit in as arbitrators which will grant them a chance to acquire a well needed experience as well as qualification to proceed as CIArb qualified Chartered Arbitrators.
Experience and Qualifications
Served as Sole Arbitrator, Co-Arbitrator, Chair of the Tribunal, Secretary to the Tribunal, and counsel in a number of cases under different institutional rules, including LCIA, UNCITRAL, ICC, PRIME Finance, and Ad-Hoc proceedings.
Dr. Raffa is the Chair of Private International Law at Raffa Ebeid & Partners LLP and Lecturer of International Arbitration at Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK and European Branch; Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration; Court Member of the LCIA; Member of LCIA’s Arab Users’ Council; Court member of the CIMAC, IBA Arbitration Committee; Chartered Arbitrator and member of the Regional Education Committee of the CIArb’s; Member of The Cairo Regional Center For International Commercial Arbitration CRCICA Advisory Committee; Member of AAA-ICDR International Advisory Committee; and Member of the SIAC African Users’ Council’s Committee.
Dr. Raffa served as ‘Sole Arbitrator’, ‘Presiding Arbitrator’, ‘Party Appointed Arbitrator’, or ‘Counsel’ in more than 172 cases involving parties from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States. He appeared in cases under the auspices of the AAA, AAA-BCDR, CRCICA, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA, ICC, ICSID, LCIA, LMAA, SCC,SIAC, as well as ad hoc UNCITRAL proceedings. He is recognized as a world leading expert on international arbitration, Arab Laws, and Islamic Shari’a. His expertise spans financial and bank disputes, construction, oil & gas, telecommunications, travel and hospitality disputes involving cross border multi- jurisdictional and highly complex contractual transactions. Dr Raffa also is featured in proceedings governed by Bahraini, Egyptian, English, French, Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Libyan, New York, Omani, Pakistani, Qatari, Saudi, Spanish, Swiss, Syrian, Italian and United Arab Emirates law(s), as well as the general principles of law.
Recent Cases include:
• Chair of the Tribunal in UNCITRAL Case involving breach of derivatives financial transaction under ISDA contracts involving multi disputant banks.
• Chair of the Tribunal in breach of fiduciary duty and of contract matter between various clients and a Bank’s trader in multi-million dollar bond issue.
• Co-arbitrator in a litigation dispute between a financial lender and a technology company.
• Emergency Arbitrator in matters involving the holding financial company of a pharmaceutical company and top executives of a bank regarding breach of arbitration separability agreements.
• Sole Arbitrator in multiple breach of commercial contract disputes.
• Sole Arbitrator in shareholder disputes involving valuation of stock options and breach of fiduciary duties.
• Co-arbitrator in Financial Broker / Dealer disputes.
• Sole Ad-Hoc Arbitrator in multiple financial services moral hazard and breach of duty disputes.
• Sole Ad-Hoc Arbitrator in multiple breach of financial services agreements involving Banks as claimants and Banks as defendants.
• As a Senior Partner of Raffa Ebeid, Mohamed litigated complex commercial cases including bankruptcy litigation, shareholder derivative cases, insurance and reinsurance matters, breach of contract, lender liability, trusts and estates, and conducted numerous due diligence reviews.
Publications:
– Challenging Arbitration Awards in Common Law England; Young Arbitration Review (YAR) – Edition 16 (2015).
– What has Sharia Got to Do with Arbitration; UEL – University of East London (2014), https://works.bepress.com/mohamedraffa/5/
http://network.bepress.com/explore/law/dispute-resolution-and-arbitration/?q=raffa
-Amiable Composition and Ex Aequo et Bono Arbitration ; Law Journal of Nigeria (2013)
http://network.bepress.com/explore/law/dispute-resolution-and-arbitration/?q=raffa
– The Egyptian Legal System an Inside Look, January 2014
Presentations:
– Harmonization of International Arbitration Rules, Faculty of Law, Cambridge University
http://www.cugls.com/cambridgearbitrationday
– Financial Regulations – Post Crisis Banking and Capital Markets Regulations. Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Annual General Meeting, Istanbul April 2016.
– Choosing the Law of an Arbitration Agreement; Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (2014)
https://works.bepress.com/mohamedraffa/6/
Education:
University of East London, PhD Arbitration Law
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, LLM Construction Law & Arbitration
University of Pittsburgh, US, PhD Banking and Finance
University of East Anglia, UK, Masters in Economics & Finance
Ain Shams University , Cairo/Egypt Bachelor of Commerce & Law
Languages
Arabic, English, French and Italian
Qualifications and current Status:
– Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration – UK
– Member of The London Court of International Arbitration
– Member of the Advisory Councel of P.R.I.M.E. Finance, The Hague
– Lecturer of Law at University of East London
-Associate Fellow of the Academy of Higher Education
– Tutor of Arbitration Law with the Chartered Institute of Arbitration, European Branch.
– Senior Partner – Raffa, Ebeid LLP with branches in London, Cannes and Cairo.
mohamed raffa 