Satellite, aviation and media contracts, from a lawyer with more than 20 years of multi-million and multi-billion-dollar deals.

Formerly at Qatar Airways · Al Jazeera · Orbit (now OSN) · Charles Russell

Deals I have done

Proof, not adjectives.

Inmarsat: multi-billion-dollar

Qatar Airways' first-in-class, multi-year in-flight Wi-Fi satellite connectivity agreement. I negotiated and drafted it.

Thales: $230 million

Qatar Airways' in-flight entertainment upgrade, my last deal at the airline.

Hamad International Airport: QAR 1.3 billion

A facilities management agreement with FMM for Qatar's national airport.

Barclays Center

A multi-million-dollar three-way sponsorship between Qatar Airways, JetBlue and the Barclays Center.

Nilesat: $50 million

A satellite capacity agreement between Orbit and Nilesat, negotiated in Cairo in 2007. At Orbit I also closed channel deals with Eutelsat, Sony and the Hollywood and British studios.

Al Jazeera

I joined as the Arab Spring began. Satellite capacity, licensing and talent agreements, the legal affairs of more than 120 bureaus worldwide, and internal investigations with HR and finance.

Also: helped build Qatar Airways' award-winning compliance program; a US company's acquisition of a company in Bahrain; advice to the chairman of a national airline. I also represent international clients in New York contract disputes.

Quoted in The GuardianQuoted in Arabian BusinessSpeaker, Satellite Law Workshop, DubaiGC Powerlist Middle East Teams 2018

What I do

Contracts, compliance and investigations in more than 30 jurisdictions.

Satellite and space

Capacity, connectivity and licensing agreements. I have negotiated with Inmarsat, Thales, Nilesat and Eutelsat, and I studied space law in London.

Aviation

Sponsorship, services, facilities and supplier contracts. I spent almost three years as a senior lawyer at Qatar Airways, and, while at Charles Russell, six months on secondment to the Contracts Department at Gulf Air, Bahrain's national airline.

Technology, media and telecoms

Channel, content, talent and technology agreements, from Al Jazeera to Hollywood. While at Charles Russell, I spent six months on secondment to Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

Licensing and IP

Trademark, content and data licenses. I managed Orbit's trademark portfolio and sat on its anti-piracy team.

Compliance and investigations

Compliance programs, data privacy and high-stakes internal investigations. I led investigations at Al Jazeera with HR and finance, and I hold an LL.M. in Corruption, Law and Governance.

Doing business in the Middle East

Fifteen years in the Gulf. I know how deals are made there, and how they go wrong.

When you hire me, you get me. Not a junior associate. I read every clause, I negotiate every point, and I answer my own telephone.

About me

Sonya Shaykhoun, Esq.

I am a New York attorney, admitted in 2008, and a corporate and commercial lawyer by training. After high school at The Dalton School in Manhattan, and a final semester at St. Stephen's School in Rome, Italy, I embarked on my international career. My first legal role, in 2004, was as a technology lawyer for Orbit, a pay-satellite television company then in Bahrain and now OSN in Dubai. I went on to Charles Russell in Bahrain, where I was seconded for six months each to Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) and to the Contracts Department at Gulf Air, Bahrain's national airline, so I have sat on the regulator's side of the table and inside an airline. From there I joined Al Jazeera Media Network, just as the Arab Spring began, and then Qatar Airways, and I founded my own practice in New York in 2019.

I hold two LL.M.s: one in Corporate and Commercial Law from SOAS, University of London, and one in Corruption, Law and Governance from the University of Sussex. I speak Arabic and French.

I am also the founder of Girl with a Car – Roving Butlers™, an attorney-led concierge for busy people in New York and the Hamptons. When a problem is part legal and part practical, Girl with a Car can handle the practical side.

Visit Girl with a Car

ADMITTEDNew York, 2008 (Registration No. 4633293)
Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, 2024
EDUCATIONLL.M. in Corporate and Commercial Law, SOAS, University of London
LL.M. in Corruption, Law and Governance, University of Sussex
BA in Arabic and Law, SOAS
MA (Hons), University of St Andrews
Space law certificate, London Institute of Space Policy and Law
St. Stephen's School, Rome
The Dalton School, New York
LANGUAGESEnglish, Arabic and French
MEMBERNew York City Bar Association

Writing and teaching