Chadia El Meouchi
Managing Partner
Chadia El Meouchi is the Managing Partner of Badri and Salim El Meouchi Law Firm.
She has been a member of the New York Bar since 2000.
Chadia joined the firm in 2000, and became Managing Partner in 2005. Chadia has practiced law in North America and the Middle East (including Lebanon and Qatar) for over 20 years.
Chadia advises clients in a large number of fields, most particularly in the areas of corporate, mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance (both Islamic and conventional), PPP, energy (including oil and gas), establishment of funds, capital markets and financial instruments, structuring and restructuring, hospitality and urban development, insurance, project finance, construction law, environmental law, and real estate, throughout the MENA region, Europe, Asia, the GCC and North and South America.
Chadia has been recognized by Dow Jones/Financial News as amongst the top 50 Most Influential Women in Middle East Finance’s latest edition. She was also recognized by Euromoney/International Financial Law Review IFLR Women Leaders Top 300 global for three consecutive years including their latest edition. Chadia is also consistently recognized as a leading corporate and commercial lawyer in a number of law directories and guides, including Chambers Global Guide for Leading Lawyers every year since 2004 (Lebanon and Qatar). And since 2007, she was also selected as a leading corporate and finance lawyer by each of the International Financial Legal Review, Global Legal 500, Asia Law and Practical Lawyer – PLC Which Lawyer (Lebanon and Qatar).
Chadia is a board member of various companies in different industries, including banking and financial services, cement, insurance, construction, engineering and commercial.
She is a professor at: University Panthéon – Assas Paris II, Paris - France: Lecturing in “Islamic Banking and Finance, Islamic Corporate Governance and Tax Legislation of the GCC Countries” , to students in the LLM for Business Law in the Arab countries; At American University of Beirut lecturing in Energy Law in the Master of Science Energy Program; At The Lebanese American University lecturing in Project Finance, Public and Private Partnerships, Corporate Governance and Mergers and Acquisitions. Chadia is lecturer at Tamayyaz in the Independent Corporate Director Certification Program.
Chadia also taught Negotiation and English law classes and Economics for Success.
Chadia has authored a number of articles on corporate and financial law, as well as on privatisation, corporate governance, and transparency. She is also frequently invited to speak at conferences on numerous topics, such as leadership, women rights, business and commercial law, banking and finance, international expansion, corporate governance and transparency and access to information and intellectual property.
Chadia obtained a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in international business, from Concordia University in Montreal. She then obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Montreal before obtaining a Master of Laws (LLM) from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She also holds an Islamic Finance Qualification granted by the UK Securities and Investment Institute and ESA, and a Certificate in arbitration and ADR from the Canadian International Arbitration Centre (McGillUniversity). Chadia has obtained a post-graduate diploma in Oil & Gas law from Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen). Chadia has also undertaken the executive program in exponential technology at Singularity University at Palo Alto, California.
Chadia is the co-founder with the Aspen Institute and Shane Tedjarati (CEO of Honeywell Global) of the Middle East Leadership Initiative, established in 2009. She has also been nominated as a Henry Crown Fellow in 2008 by the Aspen Institute, and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and The Aspen Corps of Moderators. Chadia is also a member of the Aspen Leadership Committee of the Aspen Institute Board of Trustees since 2013. Chadia is also co-founder of LeapLearner Inc, an online education technology company dedicated to self-learning skills including coding worldwide.
Chadia is also a co-founder and board member at Les Journées des Sciences Association since 2009. She is a Vice Chair and Board Member of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, and a Co-Chair and member of the Human Rights Watch Committee for Lebanon. She is a member of the LIFE Lebanon Committee. Chadia is a board member of Equality Now, a board member of Teach For Lebanon and sits on various advisory boards including Peace First. Chadia is a Steering Committee member in Shareholders Rights.com, and is a member of the LLM Advisory Council at the Lebanese American University.
Chadia has been a board member of the Lebanese Transparency Association from 2002 to 2009, a founding member and head of the Lebanese Corporate Governance Task Force’s Legal and Regulatory Committee (since 2004), a board member of the Global Integrity Alliance since 2006, a board member of the Young Leaders’ Integrity Alliance since 2006 and a board member of the Young Arab Leaders since 2008. She is also a founder of Young Arab Leader’s Lebanon and a Corporate Volunteer of Injaz Al Arab Companies Program Competition.
Chadia is fluent in Arabic, English and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish and Italian. She is also learning Chinese and Hebrew.