Biography: Arbitration

Karim is the principal of Hafez, a specialist arbitration practice based in Cairo, and adjunct professor of law at the American University in Cairo, where he teaches international dispute settlement and international investment law.

Karim regularly sits as arbitrator in construction, energy, M&A, and maritime disputes. Instructed by governments as well as by corporations, Karim represents some of the world's largest clients on large-value complex arbitrations spanning the commercial spectrum, with an emphasis on investment, construction, telecoms, energy, M&A and hospitality disputes.

Karim has handled arbitrations under most major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC, LCIA, Lebanese Centre of International Commercial Arbitration, and the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA).

He is a member of the Arbitration Court of the London Court of International Arbitration and vice president of its Arab User Council; a member of the Court of Sport Arbitration; a member of the Distinguished Panel of Neutrals of the International Center for Dispute Resolution; a member of the energy arbitrators' panel of the American Arbitration Association, board adviser to CRCICA; a member of the editorial board of Global Arbitration Review; board member of the Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society; coordinator of the Egyptian Arbitration Forum; editor of the Arab Journal of International Arbitration; and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Legal 500 (2007) says he is "universally acknowledged to be one of the country's rising stars in arbitration".

Karim was educated at Cairo, Cambridge, and Harvard. His PhD, from Cambridge University, is for a dissertation entitled "Complex Arbitration - The Limitations of a Neo-Liberal Institution".

Karim is fluent in Arabic, English and French.