Tom is a Partner and the firm’s Head of Arbitration based in the Dubai office. He is experienced in international commercial arbitration, international investment disputes, state-to-state arbitration, and foreign sovereign immunity issues. His experience covers a wide range of industries, sectors, and types of disputes, including oil-and-gas, construction, hospitality, telecommunications, automobile manufacturing, distribution agreements, shareholder disputes, and joint-venture disputes.

Tom is recognized in Who’s Who Legal Arbitration (2022) and is ranked for dispute resolution in Chambers United Arab Emirates (2021), which notes that “Tom’s knowledge and expertise is extremely impressive” and that “he has the ability to advise and write with an uncommon degree of precision and clarity.”

Tom was recently named to the Legal 500 Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist – Middle East Region. In the Legal 500 United Arab Emirates (2020), Tom was described as having “cross-examination skills [that] are excellent. He listens hard, is polite to witnesses and yet wields an iron fist beneath his velvet glove.”

In 2021, Lexology’s Client Choice recognized Tom for Arbitration & ADR in the United Arab Emirates. Client Choice, which is unique in that lawyers can only be nominated by corporate counsel, recognizes those lawyers who stand apart for excellent client care and have “an ability to add real value to clients’ business above and beyond the other players in the market”. Tom was also recognized by Asian Legal Business in its listing of Super 50 Lawyers in MENA 2022.

Tom has sat as an arbitrator and is on the panel of arbitrators of several arbitral institutions around the world. He is also a member of the following bodies:

Court of Arbitration of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC),
Arbitration Committee of the Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA),
International Arbitration Committee of KCAB International (an independent division of the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board), and the
Executive Committee of the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA) Users Council (Realty).
Tom is also the lead international expert for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its provision of technical advice to the Republic of Uzbekistan on its new, UNCITRAL-based arbitration law.

Tom frequently writes and speaks on topics involving international law and dispute resolution. Prior to relocating to Dubai, he was a professorial lecturer in law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC.

From 2001 to 2009, Tom was a member of the legal team representing the Ethiopian Government before the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, an international arbitral tribunal that adjudicated claims for loss, damage and injury arising during an international armed conflict. In this context, he worked as a resident attorney in Addis Ababa for three years.

Bryan is a partner at Obeid & Partners. With over 15-years’ experience in international arbitration and litigation, he has represented clients across a wide-range of industries including construction, chemicals, power plants, steel, oil & gas, and agriculture. These cases were conducted under a variety of institutional rules such as the ICC, LCIA, DIAC, SIAC, and SCC.

Bryan has substantial experience representing clients in the Middle East with extensive experience involving states and state-owned enterprises. Prior to moving to Dubai, Bryan was an experienced litigator representing clients before U.S. courts and administrative agencies, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bryan holds a B.A. in economics and political science (2000) from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (2004). He is the author of numerous publications, including recently a co-editor of Dealing with Delay and Disruption on Construction Projects published by Sweet & Maxwell in 2020 in which he co-authored three chapters on time-related claims.

Some of Bryan’s relevant experience includes representing:

A Saudi conglomerate against a major U.S. corporation in a DIFC-LCIA arbitration concerning investments made in a logistics and transportation business in Saudi Arabia.
A global construction contractor in relation to a +USD250 million dispute with a GCC government entity concerning the construction of the iconic Qatar National Library.
A joint venture of international contractors in successfully settling +USD 1 billion in claims with a GCC government entity regarding an iconic construction project.
An international hotel chain in a DIAC arbitration successfully defending claims of unlawful termination by one of its contractors.
French chemical company alleged to have misappropriated trade secrets from a joint venture in a successful +USD 1 billion Paris-based ICC arbitration.
A Michigan-based chemical company as claimant in a successful +USD 2 billion LCIA arbitration involving the breach of a joint venture agreement against the Government of a Middle Eastern country.
The Mexican tomato industry in successfully resolving a major international trade dispute.
ArcelorMittal Stainless Belgium NV before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding various international trade issues.

Heather Martin focuses her practice on global litigation and regulatory enforcement, with an emphasis on white collar criminal matters and other bet-the-company legal scenarios. Heather has more than nine years of practice at Am Law 50 firms, six years in-house at a state-owned fund, and extensive U.S. federal courtroom experience.

Prior to joining Jones Day, Heather headed litigation and regulatory affairs at Mubadala Investment Company in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where she coordinated the response to enforcement matters related to a multibillion dollar theft of bond proceeds from a Malaysian state-owned fund. These included asset forfeiture actions by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and criminal and civil matters alleging fraud, bribery, and money laundering.

She additionally supervised a docket of commercial disputes in more than 15 jurisdictions concerning matters at both the shareholder and portfolio company level. She oversaw groupwide sanctions compliance and submissions to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS).

Heather's private practice experience has focused on federal trials, appeals, and investigations, including representing a former First Lady of Virginia in her successful defense against criminal charges of corruption and obstruction of a formal proceeding. Heather has been a core member of trial teams that prevailed against criminal and regulatory allegations of accounting fraud, front-running in public markets, and counterfeit pharmaceuticals. She has conducted numerous internal investigations and self-reporting to the DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Sam Song is a senior associate in the firm’s International Dispute Resolution and Government Investigations & White Collar practice groups, based in Dubai.

He represents clients in major project disputes, specializing in construction arbitration and having extensive experience acting for both employers and contractors.

He also concentrates on white collar defense, regulatory enforcement and internal/government investigative matters, primarily in relation to economic sanctions, money laundering and bank/securities fraud.

Before joining the firm, Sam worked in leading international UK and US firms in Dubai and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.

John McGowan has lived and worked in Abu Dhabi for over 25 years. During this time, John has represented major construction project stakeholders (employers, engineers, architects, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers), multi-national corporations, local U.A.E. holding companies, energy companies, real estate developers and a U.A.E. free zone. His principal focus is dispute resolution in the construction and energy sectors. He serves as both an arbitrator and advocate in arbitrations, and is well versed in the rules, procedures and applicable laws in U.A.E. arbitrations including post-arbitral award enforcement proceedings. John served as U.A.E. counsel on behalf of the Dubai government (Dubai Civil Aviation Authority) in defense against a major international contractor’s post-award enforcement actions in the USA and France. More recently, John has been listed on the inaugural roster of arbitrators at the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre (TIAC) in Uzbekistan. John’s work includes overseeing/managing complex U.A.E. litigation. He also served on GALC’s team tasked by the Ministry of Finance to draft the English translation of the U.A.E. bankruptcy law [original Arabic]. John is a founding member of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Abu Dhabi, and formerly served as both a member-at-large of the Board of Directors and an officer (Secretary). He is a member of the Pennsylvania bar in the United States.