Firas Malhas

Mr. Malhas advises on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters, with experience spanning mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and finance, private international law, privatization, and regulatory governance. He regularly supports businesses on incorporation, corporate structuring, family businesses, and ongoing corporate regulatory compliance. His work includes drafting corporate governance policies for companies, family enterprises, and sector-regulated entities. He advises on mergers and acquisitions across a broad range of sectors. His transactional experience includes work in the industrial, pharmaceuticals, services, and fintech sectors, covering legal due diligence, reviewing and drafting transaction agreements, providing legal advisory throughout the transaction lifecycle, and handling negotiation aspects. He has been involved in multiple multi-million-dollar acquisition transactions and strategic asset transfers, particularly in the pharmaceutical and industrial manufacturing sectors. Mr. Malhas also has extensive experience in competition law matters. He advises on economic concentration assessments, compliance with competition rules, and submissions to regulatory authorities. His litigation experience includes representing clients in competition disputes, commercial claims between major market competitors, and contractual and shareholder conflicts. Across his practice, Mr. Malhas advises on complex commercial arrangements and sector-specific regulatory matters. His work includes all types of complex commercial agreements, including distribution agreements, technology licensing and transfer arrangements, joint development agreements, and shareholder agreements for entities operating in industrial production, extractive resources and chemical manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy, utilities, and telecommunications. He also advises on regulatory interpretation, interconnection and competition safeguards, dispute resolution mechanisms, and the development of governance and compliance programs for regulated market participants. His practice also includes litigation and dispute resolution, with a focus on civil and commercial matters. He represents local and international clients in disputes arising from complex contractual relationships, shareholder and corporate control issues, real estate, and telecommunications-related claims, as well as actions for monetary damages. He has also advised on insolvency and restructuring proceedings and was part of the legal team involved in one of the first successful imminent insolvency applications before the Jordanian courts. He also advised and supported the Government of Jordan’s efforts to reform the legal investment regime through USAID’s Jordan Competitiveness Program. His role included contributing to the drafting of the package of regulations under the new Investment Law, as well as assisting in producing the draft regulations through a transparent and consultative process involving public and private stakeholders. In addition, he was a member of the committee responsible for drafting the Instructions for Redeemable Shares for Private Shareholding Companies for the Year 2020. Prior to joining IBLAW, Mr. Malhas was deputy of the head of the legal department of Munir Sukhtian Group, a diversified manufacturing, trading, marketing, distribution, service, and contracting company headquartered in Amman, Jordan. Mr. Malhas has authored and co-authored several publications, including a chapter on the application of FIDIC contracts in Jordan in FIDIC Contracts in Africa and the Middle East (Informa Law from Routledge, 2023). He is also a contributor to LexisNexis, where he provides commentary and practical guidance on corporate, commercial, and regulatory developments. His academic paper, Liability Bridges are Falling Down! How Jordanian Courts Read Personal Liability of Shareholders, is published on SSRN. In addition, he has written commentary on the Jordanian Investment Law in a German Middle East legal publication and has authored analyses on economic concentration and competition law matters.