Sam Habbas

Sam is the Chairman of ASAR and co-founded the firm’s international division in 1988. He has played a central role in shaping ASAR’s growth into one of the leading corporate and commercial law firms in the region. With decades of experience, Sam advises and acts as lead counsel to local and multinational clients on a wide range of matters, including M&A, banking and finance, aviation finance, energy, infrastructure, projects, and multi-jurisdictional transactions.

He also leads ASAR’s private clients practice, advising family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals on personal, commercial, and philanthropic matters. His work includes advising on governance and succession planning. Sam has been instrumental in establishing new family offices and continues to provide strategic counsel to families with long-established offices.

• Sam has led numerous private client transactions on behalf of family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, advising on the structuring, management, transfer, and protection of personal wealth. His work includes family governance frameworks, succession planning, family constitutions, high-value asset transfers, philanthropic structuring, and dispute resolution.
• Sam acted as lead counsel to Adeptio AD Investments on its USD 3.4 billion acquisition of a 93.4% stake in Kuwait Food Company (Americana), a public M&A transaction that set regional precedents and was awarded IFLR’s M&A Deal of the Year in 2017.
• Sam advised a syndicate of seven export credit agencies on the USD 11.35 billion financing of Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s Clean Fuels Project, part of the country’s broader USD 100 billion economic development plan.
• Sam advised the Government of Kuwait on the Az Zour North Phase 1 IWPP Project, the first infrastructure project procured under Kuwait’s PPP Law. The project reached financial close in December 2013 and supplies 1,500 MW of electricity and 102 million gallons of water per day.

• Banking
• Investment funds
• M&A
• Private equity

• Aviation
• Banking
• Financial services
• Oil and gas
• Shipping

• Juris Doctorate, Boston College Law School, USA
• Bachelor of Arts, University of Santa Clara, USA