OUR story
Our firm’s story started with that of our founder and managing partner, Mr. Samir Salloum.
Mr. Salloum’s legal career began in Beirut, Lebanon, where he studied and qualified in the late 1960’s. After acquiring experience, he set up a law firm in that city in 1974. However, its nascent growth was interrupted as the Lebanese Civil War began, with his office burned and home shelled.
With deep regret, he therefore had to leave. In the summer of 1976, in the dead of night, he boarded a small dinghy, together with seven or eight others, in search of a better future. After several hours at sea he made port on the Syrian coastline and then found passage to Damascus, where he tried to contact various relatives across the world by Telex. The messages never reached their intended targets.
Sensing his destiny might lie in the UAE, he took a flight to Abu Dhabi, where he touched down with just 300 Dirhams in his pocket. After three months of trying to find full-time employment, his command of the French language secured him an engagement as a translator for a meeting between the then head of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ADCCI) and a French architect. The ADCCI president was so impressed that he appointed him as in-house legal counsel for the ADCCI. Mr. Salloum went on to serve as acting-director of the ADCCAC on multiple occasions.
Four years later, Mr. Salloum established Samir A Salloum Law Firm. He continued to serve as in-house legal advisor to the ADCCI on a part-time basis for a further ten years, with his firm remaining the ADCCI’s external legal counsel for many years thereafter.
With an initial focus on civil and commercial litigation, Mr. Salloum incrementally expanded the firm’s activities to include the full range of legal consultancy and transactional services we offer today.
In order to reflect our modern offering, our firm was restructured and rebranded in 2013 from Samir A Salloum Law Firm to form Salloum & Partners LLC.
In 2022, Mr. Salloum retired, having dedicated over 54 years to the practice of law in service of countless individuals, businesses and government entities. His son, Ziad Salloum, now manages the firm.
In recognition of their exceptional service and dedication, both the firm’s founder and his son have been honored with an array of medals and awards from a wide range of countries – including France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, Lebanon and The Vatican.
