Bahrain

Most large international law firms base their Middle East operations in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with some being co-located between offices in Dubai and Riyadh; they can often provide services in Bahrain through those offices. Manama itself is home to a number of top-notch regional law firms and a growing number of locally focused firms. 

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Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) was established in Kuwait in 1972 under the name of T.M.P. Agents at a time when intellectual property protection was still in its early stages of development in the Arab region. Since the firm’s launch, AGIP has consistently been at the forefront of efforts to improve the infrastructure of IP in the Arab world. It has worked in close coordination with Arab governments and multilateral organizations on introducing an efficient IP system that has brought up significant changes to the region and has supported governmental committees and officials charged in revising and drafting new laws and regulations for the enforcement of IP rights in several Arab countries. IP and corporate law attorney Laith Damer is the Bahrain office manager in Manama.  

Al Tamimi & Company is a corporate law firm with 17 offices across 10 countries in the Middle East. The firm opened its Bahrain office in 2014. Partner and corporate lawyer Rad El Treki leads the offices; former associate Hussain Osman, who handled much of the firm’s IP work in Bahrain, has joined Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a diplomat.  

CWB Legal, formerly known as Cedar White & Bradley, handles intellectual property matters throughout most of the MENA region from its offices in seven different Middle Eastern countries, including one in Bahrain. The firm is headquartered in Dubai – and most of its heavy hitters are based there, including Cameron Crawford, who heads the firm’s technology, media and entertainment practice. He is a top lawyer who has advised clients across all areas of media and entertainment; he has extensive experience of working with clients in the global content production and distribution sectors and independent filmmakers and is credited for his work on several motion pictures including Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Fast & Furious 7. Theuns van de Merwe, who heads the IP practice, is also based in Dubai, while Claudia Berndt, the firm’s head of MENA patents, is based in Pretoria, South Africa. 

Charles Russell Speechlys is a London-based firm with offices in Manama, Dubai and Doha. In Manama, the firm is heavily focussed on dispute resolution and projects work. 

Partner Mohamed Toorani heads the Bahrain office of DLA Piper. Toorani advises on a broad range of corporate and finance matters, including FinTech; prior to joining the firm, he worked in Dubai at Mashreq Bank, the oldest privately-owned bank in the United Arab Emirates. He is also the office’s go-to lawyer for trademarks, licensing and other IP work. He is the only Bahraini national to head an international law firm in Bahrain. 

Elham Ali Hassan leads Elham Ali Hassan & Associates; she has more than a quarter century of legal experience in Bahrain, where she is a top litigator and arbitrator. Managing partner Essa Jawahery is a key IP contact at the firm; he has experience with both local and foreign business organizations of all sizes, and in all stages of growth. The firm counts Bloomberg, Apple, Estée Lauder and St. Christopher’s School, a British international school in Bahrain, among its clients. 

Hassan Radhi & Associates was founded in 1974 as a purely local law firm; through an association with the former Coudert Brothers firm, HRA quickly grew into one of the region’s key regional law firms. The firm has 17 credentialed lawyers today, and operates in a variety of practice areas, including intellectual property and litigation. Fatima Hussain Al Ali leads the firm’s telecommunications and corporate team and is a key IP contact. She led the firm’s team assisting VIVA Bahrain in its acquisition of Mena Telecom. 

Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Attorneys at Law & Legal Consultants is a dynamic, full-service law firm with more than two decades of experience in Bahrain. The firm’s TMT team has been instrumental in the establishment of the country’s regulatory bodies and relevant regulations in the sector; it has also advised on major contracts, outsourcing and offshoring, information management compliance and data protection, e-business and IT security, telecoms and media. Its IP team provides both contentious and non-contentious services. The firm’s founder, Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, was one of the first two women to practice law in Bahrain when she was admitted as a lawyer in 1979. She has had a parallel career as a diplomat, serving as Bahrain’s Ambassador to France from 2000 to 2004, becoming Bahrain’s first female ambassador. She is also Bahrain’s permanent delegate to UNESCO. 

JAH Intellectual Property has 12 offices in the Middle East, including in Manama, and is a leader in IP prosecution work in the Middle East and Africa. Clients run the gamut from small companies to Fortune 100 companies. CEO Jehad Ali Hasan attributes his firm’s success to combining legal, technical and scientific know-how to tailor solutions for client’s specific needs, experts with a broad range of technical backgrounds and vast legal experience in navigating the nuances of the Middle Eastern IP. “It is our philosophy to assist our clients in recognizing, protecting and exploiting intellectual property as a business asset which complements our clients’ business objectives,” he says. The firm’s main offices are in Doha. 

Bahrain-based Newton Legal was established in 2012 and has spent the past decade growing into one of the Kingdom’s largest law firms. The firm’s TMT practice is home to its IP specialists, who handle licensing and distribution, IP litigation, defamation and libel claims, data protection and privacy policies and other related corporate and commercial matters. Its lawyers are regularly seconded into the legal division of a major regionally based international TV network to assist and advise on their legal needs across a number of jurisdictions. Team members have also been seconded into Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to assist with regulatory and commercial advice. 

Raees + Co is a full-service law firm with a regional reach. The firm’s commercial practice handles all aspects of intellectual property and related work, including commercial contracts, data privacy and information law, IP rights and licensing and IT contracts. Senior partner Ali Shaaban is a key IP contact at the firm; he is lauded for his work drafting commercial and business contracts, including IP and licensing agreements. 

Marwan Haddad is country manager at regional firm Saba & Co. Intellectual Property, also known as Saba IP, in Manama. The firm, as one of the region’s largest IP-focussed practices, handles the gamut of IP matters. The firm’s offices stretch from the Middle East to Central Asia and throughout much of Africa.  

United Trademark & Patent Services is a top-notch regional law firm which offers the full realm of intellectual property services and domain name services. The firm is led by the well-known Yawar Irfan Khan, Hasan Irfan Khan and Maria Farrukh Irfan Khan. In addition to Bahrain, the firm has offices in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as in parts of North Africa and South Asia. 

Full-service law firm Zeenat Al Mansoori & Associates is led by managing partner Zeenat A. Al Mansoori, a noted litigator and international commercial arbitrator. Partner Amel Al Aseeri is a key contact for IP matters; she is also a member of the Pro-Bono Lawyers Network Bahrain and offers her time and legal support to multiple NGOs and charities. The firm’s clients include Wyndham, Marriott and Subway. 

Zu’bi & Partners is a full-service law firm with practices including IP, franchising, data privacy, distributorships and international trade, as well as litigation and ADR. The firm, the oldest in Bahrain – it will celebrate its 105th anniversary in 2026 – is particularly noted for its finance work. Senior partner Qays H. Zu’bi is known throughout the Middle East as a passionate, knowledgeable lawyer.