Mr. Ahmed Dawood is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Law Offices of Bayt al-Hikmah for Legal Services and Consultancy, LLC, leading the firm’s Corporate, Commercial, and Investment practice. Ahmed’s experience combines practical and academic knowledge having worked in the public sector in Iraq.  His practice focuses on commercial and financial affairs related to Iraq, particularly trade and foreign investment, public-private partnerships, public procurement, licensing, and contracting.

Mr. Dawood has notable experience and relationships with the Government of Iraq serving as a trusted advisor, working on high impact litigation and transactions, and providing critical and strategic counselling across a broad spectrum of government affairs. Before he served as Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmed also served as an Advisor to the Iraqi Minister of Planning and International Development.  He also worked as Executive Secretary of the High Economic & Procurement Committee at the Council of Minister.

Mr. Dawood served as the Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Iraq. In this role, he advises the President and the Presidency on fiscal, economic, investment, and trade matters and coordinates with the Prime Minister’s Office and government agencies, World Bank and embassies in Iraq, multilateral and national development financial institutions to plan and execute strategic initiatives to support the development and economic initiatives in Iraq.

Mr. Dawood played a key role in drafting and implementing high impact legislations including but not limited to the Iraqi Investment Law and the Supreme Construction Commission.  He acted as the international legal adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office on Iraq’s potential accession to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958.

Mr. Dawood is active in the publishing arena. He served as a contributing author for the U.S. Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development Program’s report titled Legal Guide to Investing in Power Generation in Iraq in 2018 in addition to authoring numerous legal and financial publications.

Mr. Dawood received a Bachelor of Arts in Law and a Master’s Degree in Commercial Law from Al-Nahrain University in Iraq. He also received a Master of Law in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law, Washington, DC, in 2012.

Mr. Dawood is a member of the Iraqi Bar Association since 1998. He is also an Iraqi Special Legal Consultant licensed by the District of Columbia Bar and the Virginia State Bar, USA. Mr. Dawood is an accredited Iraqi law Expert Witness in courts in the UK and US courts. He speaks fluent Arabic and English.