Laya Aoun-Hani

Laya Aoun-Hani is a partner and heads Baker McKenzie’s International Trade, Compliance and Investigations practice in the Middle East. With over 20 years of experience in the region, she advises multinational companies on complex cross-border trade and supply-chain matters, including customs valuation and classification, import and export requirements, free-zone and importer-of-record models, export controls, sanctions, embargoes and trade compliance programmes. She also conducts internal compliance investigations involving alleged misconduct and regulatory breaches. Her practice further covers market entry, regional distribution and commercial agency arrangements, supply-chain restructurings, commercial transactions, competition law, regulatory compliance and dispute settlements. She is the Middle East co-lead of Baker McKenzie’s Healthcare and Life Sciences and Consumer Goods and Retail Industry Groups and has extensive experience in the telecommunications sector.

Laya trained at a leading Lebanese law firm and a major international law firm in London before joining Baker McKenzie in Dubai in 2013. She lectured and coordinated a Business Law course for five years at the Faculty of Business at Antonine University in Lebanon and taught in the Continuing Legal Professional Development Programme of the Dubai Legal Affairs Department for five years. She is a regular speaker at industry and business forums, including Mecomed and the AmCham Healthcare Committee.