CCME Group announces shortlist for the Awards
Guests and winners at the CCME Awards 2013
Legal Week and the Corporate Counsel Middle East Group (CCME) unveiled the shortlist of in-house lawyers, legal departments and law firms nominated for the Corporate Counsel Middle East Awards 2014. The awards will take place on 15th May in Dubai and are jointly hosted by Legal Week and the Corporate Counsel Middle East Group.
Clifford Chance, DLA Piper and Hogan Lovells are among six international firms competing to be dubbed International Law Firm of the Year in the third annual Corporate Counsel Middle East Awards. Eversheds, Simmons & Simmons and White & Case make up the shortlist for this prestigious category while Al Ansari Law, Afridi & Angell, Bin Shabib & Associates and Al Tamimi & Company are vying to be named Middle East Law Firm of the Year.
This year there are a record number of nominations for in-house legal teams and general counsel with 23 companies represented across the in-house categories, including the multinationals Johnson & Johnson, Panasonic, Nokia and Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company as well as for the first time DP World, Flydubai, GEMS Education and Flash Entertainment. Saudi Aramco’s David Kultgen, Tamer Nassar of Baker Hughes, and Stephen Hibbert of Qatar Railways, are among the eight GCs shortlisted for the prestigious General Counsel of the Year award.
The awards ceremony will be introduced by Elias Hayek, president of the Corporate Counsel Middle East Group and vice president, legal, EAME division of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.
Hayek is also chair of the judging panel, which features Afshan Akhtar, general counsel of Aluminium Bahrain, and winner of General Counsel of the Year 2013. Other judges include Khalid Khan, general counsel of Gulf Investment Corporation, Harold Koster, director of the University of Dubai’s recently launched College of Law, and the corporate governance consultant Francois de Montaudouin, former chief executive of the Majid Al Futtaim and Al Rostamani groups.
Of the 14 categories, four are reserved for the in-house legal sector and seven are for private practice law firms. Al Tamimi & Company demonstrates the breadth of its regional practice as the only firm to secure nominations in all six practice area categories, including Banking, Finance and Restructuring Team of the Year, where it is up against six international firms including Allen & Overy, Dentons, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins and Shearman & Sterling.
The winners – including the recipient of a special achievement award chosen by the CCME – will be announced at a Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony in Dubai on Thursday 15th May at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi.
Commenting on the shortlist, Elias Hayek, vice president, legal, EAME division, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide said, ‘We were delighted by the number and quality of the entries for this year’s Awards. We have a list of fantastic finalists demonstrating the contribution of both general counsel and law firms to the fast moving economic environment across the Middle East."
The full shortlist is available on www.corporatecounselmiddleeastawards.com
