Founded in 1955 by Jacques el-Hakim, Hakim Law Firm is the oldest Syrian law firm in Damascus still practicing. The firm’s areas of practice are diversified with a focus on business law. The firm’s activities include advising its clients on setting up and running their projects as well as litigation and arbitration. The firm’s two partners have each served as members of the Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). One of them still represents Syria at the ICC to date.
The firm has worked on most of the cutting edge transactions and landmark matters novel to the Syrian legal and economic environment in key sectors of the economy, including in banking (establishing two of the first three private banks in the country after forty years of State-owned banks monopoly), in telecoms (establishing one of the two private mobile telephone operators in the country and the first telecom license), in project finance (working on the majority of syndicated project finance operations that took place in Syria, one of which was mentioned in The Economist magazine as project of the year), in securities law (advising on one of the first two IPOs in Syria and providing innovative and in-depth studies on the Damascus Stock Exchange and securities, working on introducing certain securities in the stock market for the first time), in oil and gas (advising on the largest projects in the last decade prior to the war) and in real estate (largest development project prior to the war). The firm has also worked on all of the four large companies acquisitions that took place in the Syrian banking and insurance sectors in the five years preceding 2025 and worked on restructuring and establishing major industrial projects. Further details on selected representative matters of the firm can be found in our areas of practice.
The firm’s clients, many of which have been clients for decades, are mainly regional or international companies including several who are amongst the largest in their fields internationally, their local subsidiaries, large Syrian companies and financial institutions.
Clients of other large and small Syrian law firms also seek the services of the firm for matters that are new or specialized.
The working languages are Arabic, English and French.
The firm has been consistently ranked in the major legal directories, such as Chambers or Legal 500.
Our History
Hakim Law Firm was founded in 1955 by Prof. Jacques el-Hakim and is the oldest Syrian law firm in Damascus still practicing. Prof. Jacques el-Hakim was a law professor in Syria, Lebanon and France (“Agrégé” from French Law Faculties) for more than five decades, as well as an internationally renowned attorney and arbitrator. He is the author of several books in various fields of law, including in commercial, civil, shipping, criminal and Islamic laws, social security, national income and has published numerous articles in international law reviews, with a significant part on arbitration. He participated in drafting and amending several laws and international treaties in Syria, particularly the Syrian Commerce and Companies Codes and the Syrian law on arbitration.