Insights

As a disputes lawyer, I come across many disputes that were entirely avoidable, and it is fair to say that commercial disputes are among the most costly and disruptive events a business can face. They consume management time, damage commercial relationships, generate significant legal costs, and — in severe cases — threaten the viability of an enterprise altogether. Yet a significant proportion of disputes that find their way into arbitration tribunals, courtrooms, or mediation suites are not the product of bad faith or genuinely irreconcilable differences. They are, at their root, the product of poorly drafted contracts: documents that failed to anticipate risk, allocate responsibility clearly, or provide workable mechanisms for resolving problems when they arise.

There are many issues to be mindful of during a time of conflict, but staff welfare is at the top of the list for any employer in Qatar. We set out below some key considerations for employers in the Middle East Region to be thinking about during this time.

As the war in the Middle East moves into its second week, its impact will be felt across businesses and industries.

Within the first two days of conflict in the current military crisis in the Middle East, our clients have already begun receiving and issuing force majeure notices, including on major infrastructure projects in Qatar. This short article highlights some of the important provisions and consequences when dealing with force majeure in construction contracts.

A judge in a recent US case wrote, "the practice of law is not just a job, it is a profession; a profession with standards and ethical responsibilities." With the use of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) becoming the norm in a lawyer’s professional life, those standards and ethical responsibilities face renewed scrutiny.

The Qatar Financial Centre (“QFC”) has established itself as a premier jurisdiction for the creation and management of trusts, offering a sophisticated legal framework that meets international standards. This article explores the key aspects and advantages of trusts within the QFC, providing insights into their structure, operational benefits and diverse applications for local and international stakeholders.

The financing of legal actions by third parties has grown exponentially since the early 2000s and is now common across many common law and civil law jurisdictions. It is still in its infancy in Qatar, but the Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (the “QICCA”) expressly recognised third party dispute funding in its 2024 rules update (the “QICCA Rules”).

The start of 2025 has seen the introduction of the new arbitration rules for the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (“QICCA”). The new rules, entitled the ‘Arbitration Rules 2024’, reflect the changing world of dispute resolution, and the rules are nearly double in length to the 2012 rules reflecting the QICCA’s understanding that arbitration is a competitive environment, and that institutional bodies need to adapt to meet the end-users’ needs. The 2024 rules are a considerable improvement, offering new regimes of expedited and emergency procedures, and transparency on third-party funding, making dispute resolution more accessible and user-friendly. We detail some of the more significant changes below.