Farouk, a senior associate in our London office, advises clients on arbitrations governed by the ICC, ICSID, LCIA, and UNCITRAL rules, with a focus on complex commercial and investor-State disputes in the oil and gas and telecommunications sectors. He is often called upon by clients to provide strategic advice in respect to disputes raising matters of force majeure, taxation, international sanctions, and claims by competing governments.
In addition, Farouk has acted as arbitrator in proceedings under the auspices of the ICC and PCA. He is a member of the ICC Bulletin Editorial Board.
Farouk also completed a secondment at TotalEnergies’ Exploration and Production’s legal department in Paris.
Farouk was recognised by Who’s Who Legal as an Arbitration Future Leader for 2023 as “one of the strongest arbitration intellectuals in the London market” and in 2022 as “a brilliant lawyer who combines academic chops with common sense”. He has been listed as a recommended lawyer for international arbitration and a “Rising Star” in public international law in The Legal 500 UK’s 2023 guide and recognised in The Legal 500 UK’s 2022 Arbitration Powerlist.
Prior to joining Three Crowns, Farouk was an international arbitration associate in the London office of a leading global firm, working as well in Riyadh and Dubai as a member of the firm’s Corporate and M&A teams. While in London, he was part of the firm’s Global Business and Human Rights and Global Sanctions Teams. Farouk was previously a legal counsel at the PCA in The Hague, where he administered appointing authority requests, investor-State, and commercial arbitrations. He was also the Court’s acting representative in Mauritius, where he focused on promoting the Court’s activities and casework in Africa. In addition, Farouk has litigation experience before Quebec courts. Prior to qualifying in Quebec in 2010, Farouk trained at the legal departments of Bombardier in Montreal and Société Générale in Paris.
He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Law at Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies.
Farouk holds a PhD degree in public international law from Leiden University and was a visiting scholar at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil law from the University of Ottawa and an LLM from the University of Montreal.
Farouk regularly publishes on commercial and international law matters. His peer-reviewed publications include Contributory Fault under International Law, ICSID Review, Oxford University Press (2020), Non-Compensatory Damages in Civil and Common Law Jurisdictions: Requirements and Underlying Principles, Global Arbitration Review Guide to Damages (2016, 2020), Civil Society in Investment Treaty Arbitration, Brill Njihoff (2018), and State-Owned Enterprises as Claimants before ICSID: Is the Broches Test on the Ebb?, BCDR International Arbitration Review, Kluwer Law International (2017).
Farouk is a native Arabic and French speaker, and also speaks Spanish and Italian fluently. He is qualified in Quebec, Paris, and England & Wales.
Bar and court admissions
Languages
Arabic
English
French
Italian
Spanish
Representing a consortium of private equity and sovereign investors in a shareholder dispute involving an investment in an Asian life insurance business
Representing a consortium of oil and gas majors in parallel contract and treaty disputes against a CIS state
Representing an oil and gas major in two parallel arbitrations against a CIS state
Representing French, Lebanese, and Jordanian real estate investors in two ad hoc arbitrations commenced under the France-Libya bilateral investment treaty and OIC Agreement against Libya and set-aside proceedings before the Federal Tribunal in Switzerland
Representing a concessionaire in an LCIA arbitration under a lottery concession agreement against a European State
- Licence in Civil Law (LLL), University of Ottawa
- Masters in Law (LLM), University of Montreal
- Doctorate in Law (PhD), Leiden University