Saeeq Shajjan is a Barrister and Solicitor in Ontario and a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. His practice focuses on international arbitration, cross-border commercial transactions, and corporate and commercial law. He is regularly retained to provide expert opinions on Afghan law. His clients include multinational corporations, international law firms, financial institutions, arbitral tribunals, government entities, and private clients whose matters involve Afghanistan or otherwise cross borders.
In nearly twenty years of practice, Mr. Shajjan has worked in private practice, in-house, and in government, a mix that few lawyers share. That experience has given him a practical instinct for commercial work: he begins with what the client aims to achieve and treats the legal analysis as the means to get there, whether the matter is a transaction, an investment, a regulatory issue, or a dispute.
Mr. Shajjan founded and led Shajjan & Associates, a full-service commercial firm in Kabul that Chambers & Partners ranked as Band 1 and that Legal 500 recognized as among the country’s leading practices. The firm represented multinationals, international financial institutions, embassies, international organizations, and government contractors, and served as Afghan counsel to several leading global law firms on transactions, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory matters, infrastructure projects, disputes, and inbound investment.
Supporting international counsel on Afghan law remains central to his work. He is comfortable serving as local counsel for due diligence, corporate structuring, contracts, enforcement, and dispute strategy across sectors ranging from energy and mining to telecommunications, banking, construction, transportation, and technology.
A large part of Mr. Shajjan’s practice involves serving as an expert on Afghan law in international litigation and arbitration. His evidence has been received by the ICC, the LCIA, and the American Arbitration Association; the United States Civilian Board of Contract Appeals and the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals; the High Court of Justice in London; and courts in the United States and Europe. He has opined on the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, contract and corporate law, the Hydrocarbons Law, and property, labor, procurement, and civil aviation law, as well as on how force majeure operates under Afghan law.
Alongside his seat on the ICC Court, Mr. Shajjan sits on the ICC Canada Arbitration Committee and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He was one of the founding arbitrators of the Afghanistan Center for Commercial Dispute Resolution, where he heard and decided commercial disputes between private parties and, in some cases, the government.
Mr. Shajjan has worked with Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and, in-house, with Loblaw Companies Limited, where he handled commercial contracts, procurement and vendor agreements, risk allocation, regulatory matters, and disputes for one of the largest companies in the country.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Shajjan advised Afghanistan’s Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission on legislation and policy, helping to draft the Civil Servants Law and the Administrative Procedure Law. At the International Development Law Organization, he worked on justice-sector reform, including the legislative groundwork for an independent legal profession in Afghanistan.
He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a second LL.M. from the University of Pune, together with a bachelor’s degree in law and political science from Kabul University. He is called to the bar in Ontario.