“A legal career is built gradually. Academic qualifications may provide an entry point, but professional credibility is developed through experience, discipline, reliability and the accumulation of specialised knowledge.” – Mohamed Adam Mokrani
Mohamed Adam Mokrani is a Tunisian and Algerian lawyer, public policy consultant, and founder of Mokrani Law Firm. Admitted to the Tunisian Bar in 2019, he advises domestic and international clients on business law, foreign investment, regulatory matters, arbitration, energy, natural resources, and cross border transactions. His professional activities span Tunisia, Algeria, and France, with a particular focus on supporting investors and companies operating across North Africa. He is also a member of Lex Maxima, an international network of lawyers, through which he contributes to cross border legal cooperation.
Adam holds a Research Master’s degree in Business Law from the University of Carthage, obtained in 2017, and a Master’s degree in African Legal Studies from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University, obtained in 2020. His academic and professional background combines business law, African legal systems, investment law, energy and natural resources law, development policy, and public policy analysis. His comparative approach enables him to examine legal issues within their broader economic, institutional, and political contexts.
Since 2025, Adam has been registered on the roster of counsel of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Since 2024, he has also acted as counsel in proceedings before the Islamic Development Bank Group Administrative Tribunal. In the field of international dispute resolution, he serves as an ICC Young Arbitration and ADR Forum Representative for Africa, covering Tunisia and Algeria under the 2024 to 2026 mandate.
Beyond private legal practice, Adam works at the intersection of law, public policy, economic development, and institutional reform. He collaborates with African, Arab, and international think tanks and organisations on alternative finance, environmental governance, energy transition, extractive industries, investment policy, corporate responsibility, and access to information. His advisory work in Tunisia also extends to crowdfunding platforms, financial institutions, banking sector actors, associations, and organisations supporting entrepreneurship and innovative financing.
He has contributed to legislative and public policy initiatives concerning investment and crowdfunding in Tunisia and has advised some of the country’s first regulated crowdfunding operators. He is also a founding member of Tunisia Energy Society and has been involved for several years in initiatives addressing energy governance, the social acceptability of extractive projects, and the transition towards more sustainable energy systems in Tunisia and Algeria.
Adam is the author of two books and numerous legal articles, policy studies, and professional publications addressing petroleum investments, extractive sector taxation, energy transition, natural resource governance, crowdfunding, financial inclusion, investment reform, and corporate responsibility. Through his legal practice, research, and public policy work, he seeks to strengthen legal certainty, improve access to economic opportunities, and support sustainable and inclusive development across North Africa and the African continent.
1. What ignited Adam’s passion for the legal profession, and what continues to make the practice of law a deeply fulfilling pursuit for you?
Adam’s passion for the legal profession was initially rooted in a strong democratic conviction and a deep commitment to the protection of rights and freedoms. He has always viewed lawyers as essential actors in safeguarding individual liberties, ensuring access to justice and preserving the rule of law.
This role is not merely symbolic. International standards, including the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, recognise that the effective protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms requires access to legal services delivered by an independent legal profession.
In Tunisia, this conviction is reinforced by the distinctive place historically occupied by lawyers in public life. Tunisian lawyers have not confined themselves to courtrooms or private legal practice. They have participated in public debate, civil society, institutional reforms and the defence of democratic principles. One of the clearest illustrations of this public role was the participation of the Tunisian Bar Association in the National Dialogue Quartet, which received the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the construction of pluralistic democracy in Tunisia.
At the broader level, Adam therefore regards the legal profession as a profession with genuine social, institutional and political influence. Lawyers can affect the daily lives of individuals, contribute to the functioning of institutions and intervene in the major debates shaping society. For him, the legal profession possesses both strategic value and a public responsibility.
However, his attachment to the profession is also deeply personal. Becoming a lawyer was not simply the result of an academic or professional calculation. It was a vocation he had envisaged for himself from an early stage. The profession offered him the opportunity to combine intellectual rigour, independence, public engagement and direct action.
Over time, this initial commitment to rights and freedoms expanded to include an equally strong interest in economic development, investment and business law. Adam wanted to become not only a legal adviser, but also an active participant in economic development. Through his work, he assists companies and investors in understanding local regulatory environments, overcoming legal and administrative obstacles and establishing or expanding their activities, particularly in Algeria and Tunisia.
What makes legal practice especially fulfilling for him is the possibility of resolving the concrete difficulties encountered by economic actors. Whether the issue concerns market entry, regulatory compliance, corporate organisation, investment protection or relations with public authorities, the lawyer can transform a complex legal environment into a clearer and more secure framework for action.
Adam also finds purpose in contributing to advocacy initiatives and public policy reforms. His work is therefore not limited to advising individual clients. It also involves examining the structural origins of legal difficulties, proposing policy solutions and contributing to the improvement of the regulatory environment.
His professional path reflects this broader understanding of law. He has studied and worked across several jurisdictions, particularly in North Africa, while also gaining experience relating to Gulf countries. His academic background combines law with African legal studies, international relations, development policy, political science and public policy.
As a result, Adam does not define himself exclusively as a conventional practising lawyer. He operates at the intersection of legal practice, policy analysis, advocacy and strategic research. He advises clients, contributes to public policy discussions and analyses the political, institutional and economic contexts in which legal norms are created and implemented.
What continues to make the profession deeply fulfilling for him is precisely this ability to operate at both the individual and systemic levels. He can assist a client facing an immediate legal difficulty while also contributing to broader reforms intended to improve governance, legal certainty and economic development. For Adam, the law is most meaningful when it produces practical solutions while also contributing to a more just, open and effective institutional environment.
2. In Adam’s opinion, what qualities define a truly exceptional lawyer in today’s world?
In Adam’s view, an exceptional lawyer in today’s world must first be multidisciplinary. Contemporary legal practice can no longer be based solely on the mastery of statutes, case law and legal terminology. Lawyers increasingly intervene in sectors whose legal questions cannot be properly understood without knowledge of their technical, economic and operational foundations.
A lawyer must therefore be able to move beyond strictly legal reasoning and develop a genuine understanding of the industries in which clients operate.
In the energy sector, for example, Adam’s work has required him to acquire knowledge of energy economics, project financing, petroleum geology, extractive industries and the technical organisation of energy projects. Without this sectoral understanding, a lawyer may be able to read a contract or interpret a regulation, but may not fully comprehend the commercial, technical and financial realities underlying them.
The same principle applies to intellectual property, information technology and digital projects. A lawyer advising software engineers or technology companies must understand at least the basic principles of software engineering, coding, data architecture and digital product development. The objective is not for the lawyer to replace the engineer, geologist, economist or financial expert. Rather, the lawyer must be capable of understanding their reasoning, identifying the legal implications of their work and communicating effectively with them.
Adam therefore sees the modern lawyer as a translator between different professional worlds. The lawyer translates technical realities into legal concepts and, conversely, explains legal requirements in terms that engineers, executives, investors and operational teams can understand and implement.
This requires pedagogical ability. A strong lawyer does not merely produce technically correct legal opinions. He or she must be able to explain complex rules clearly, structure the decision-making process and help clients understand the consequences of each available option. Clarity is not the simplification of legal analysis. It is the result of mastering a subject sufficiently well to make it intelligible to others.
Methodological discipline is equally important. Lawyers must know how to identify the relevant facts, distinguish essential issues from secondary ones, assess risks and formulate practical recommendations. The purpose of legal advice is not simply to describe the law. It is to help the client make a legally secure and strategically sound decision.
An exceptional lawyer must also act primarily as an adviser and a preventive partner. The lawyer’s role should not begin only after a dispute has arisen. It should begin when a project, contract, investment or institutional decision is being designed.
By intervening at an early stage, the lawyer can identify risks, clarify responsibilities, prevent misunderstandings and establish mechanisms for resolving potential disagreements. Preventive legal work can protect commercial relationships, preserve investments and avoid lengthy and costly disputes.
For Adam, this represents a transition from a purely reactive conception of legal practice to a more constructive model of legal engineering. The lawyer does not merely repair the consequences of defective decisions. He or she contributes to designing legally sound projects from their inception.
The qualities that define an exceptional lawyer are therefore versatility, intellectual agility, technical curiosity, methodological rigour and openness of mind. These qualities must be accompanied by professional independence, integrity and the ability to understand the broader economic, social and political context of each matter.
Ultimately, an exceptional lawyer is someone capable of connecting law with reality. Legal expertise becomes truly valuable when it can be translated into solutions that are technically informed, operationally realistic and legally secure.
3. What is the next groundbreaking project or initiative that Adam is or would be working on, and what impact is he hoping it will make?
The next major body of work that Adam wishes to develop is centred on the democratisation of access to finance and information in North Africa. This broader ambition is structured around 3 interconnected areas: alternative finance in Tunisia, improved governance of the Tunisian extractive sector and the promotion of a stronger energy transition culture in Algeria.
The first area concerns alternative finance, particularly crowdfunding and other innovative financing instruments in Tunisia.
Adam believes that alternative finance should not remain accessible only to financial specialists, large institutions or a limited category of investors. It should become understandable and accessible to ordinary citizens, entrepreneurs, small businesses, innovative project developers and members of the Tunisian diaspora.
He has already been involved in legislative drafting work relating to crowdfunding in Tunisia. This experience strengthened his conviction that alternative financing mechanisms can contribute significantly to the development of the Tunisian financial sector.
Traditional financing channels do not always adequately meet the needs of young entrepreneurs, innovative companies and small or medium sized projects. Alternative finance can complement conventional banking by allowing projects to mobilise funding directly from a broader community of contributors and investors.
This could also create more accessible channels through which Tunisians residing abroad can finance businesses and innovative projects in Tunisia. The diaspora possesses financial resources, professional expertise and strong links with the country, but these resources require transparent, legally secure and accessible mechanisms through which they can be mobilised.
Adam’s objective is therefore not limited to advocating the adoption of financial legislation. He wishes to contribute to the public understanding of these mechanisms, strengthen confidence in them and ensure that the applicable legal framework adequately protects project developers, contributors and investors.
The second area concerns the governance of the energy and extractive sectors in Tunisia. Adam has been engaged in this field for approximately a decade, particularly on questions relating to access to information, public understanding of extractive activities and the relationship between energy projects, public institutions and local communities.
He considers access to reliable information to be essential to the social acceptability of energy and extractive projects. When information is inaccessible, excessively technical or communicated too late, mistrust can develop between public authorities, companies and communities.
Such mistrust can subsequently generate social tensions, interruptions of production and complex legal disputes. The objective should therefore not be limited to resolving disputes once they have escalated. It should include the development of transparent decision-making processes and credible channels of communication capable of preventing those disputes.
Adam consequently seeks to contribute to a model of extractive governance based on transparency, access to information, public participation and early identification of social and legal risks. Better informed communities are more capable of participating meaningfully in discussions concerning the economic, environmental and social consequences of extractive projects.
The third area concerns the promotion of an energy transition culture in Algeria. Adam contributes to public policy research and analysis relating to the Algerian energy transition, including through cooperation with international and regional research organisations and think tanks.
For him, the energy transition cannot be reduced to the installation of renewable energy infrastructure. It also requires regulatory reform, institutional capacity, financial mechanisms, technical expertise and greater public understanding of the economic and social transformations involved.
The legal profession has a central role to play in this process. Lawyers can help design regulatory frameworks, structure investments, allocate risks and ensure that transition policies are consistent with principles of legal certainty, transparency and social justice.
Although these three areas may appear distinct, they are connected by a common objective: enabling citizens, investors and public institutions to participate more effectively in economic and energy transformation.
Adam hopes that this work will produce several forms of impact. It should broaden access to financing, strengthen the contribution of the Tunisian diaspora to national investment, improve the transparency and social acceptability of extractive projects, prevent disputes and support a more informed and inclusive energy transition in North Africa.
The ultimate ambition is to make law and public policy more accessible. Regulatory innovation only becomes meaningful when citizens and economic actors can understand it, trust it and use it to develop sustainable projects.
4. Which legal minds and books have shaped or are shaping Adam’s thoughts and perspectives?
Two works have had a particularly significant influence on Adam’s legal thought and professional orientation.
The first is Introduction à l’étude du droit. The original French edition was written by the late Professor Mohamed Charfi and published in Tunis in 1983. An Arabic version is also cited as a joint work by Mohamed Charfi and Professor Ali Mezghani.
This book was among the first major legal works Adam encountered during his studies at the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of the University of Carthage. Like many Tunisian law students, he initially approached it as an introductory academic text. However, its influence extended well beyond the acquisition of basic legal concepts.
The work helped Adam understand that law cannot be reduced to a collection of rules, procedures and sanctions. A legal norm must be examined in relation to the individual, society and the state. It is created within a particular historical, political and social context and produces consequences that extend beyond the courtroom.
This conception of law contributed to shaping Adam’s broader professional outlook. It encouraged him to examine not only what a legal rule formally provides, but also why it was adopted, whose interests it protects, how it affects social relationships and whether it achieves its intended purpose.
The book also represents an important contribution to modern Tunisian legal thought. For Adam, it demonstrates how legal scholarship can preserve methodological rigour while remaining attentive to the relationship between law, society and institutional development.
The second major work is Le droit pétrolier et minier en Afrique, written by Thierry Lauriol and Émilie Raynaud. The book analyses mining and petroleum legislation across African jurisdictions, as well as the contractual regimes governing extractive operations.
This work has influenced Adam at both the substantive and methodological levels. Substantively, it relates directly to his work and research in energy, petroleum, mining and natural resources law. It provides a detailed examination of the legal structures governing strategically important sectors across the African continent.
Methodologically, the book illustrates the value of comparative legal analysis. Instead of examining a single national system in isolation, it identifies similarities, differences and broader developments across African jurisdictions. This comparative approach corresponds closely to Adam’s own professional identity as a comparatist working across several legal systems.
Thierry Lauriol’s professional trajectory has also been particularly influential for Adam. His career combines legal practice, academic research, teaching and highly specialised work in energy, mining, natural resources and international arbitration across Africa and other regions.
This capacity to move between the roles of practitioner and scholar is something Adam considers especially valuable. It demonstrates that academic depth and practical legal experience are not competing paths. They can reinforce one another.
A practising lawyer brings knowledge of commercial realities, negotiations and disputes to academic research. In return, research allows the practitioner to place individual cases within a broader comparative and conceptual framework.
Adam continues to keep both works in his personal library. They represent 2 complementary dimensions of his legal identity. The first shaped his understanding of the social and institutional meaning of law. The second strengthened his commitment to technical expertise, comparative analysis and the study of African energy and natural resources law.
5. What advice or guiding principles would Adam offer young legal professionals and Advocates trying to find their place and purpose in the legal terrain?
Adam’s first advice to young legal professionals would be to remain innovative and intellectually curious. The legal profession is increasingly competitive, and technical knowledge alone may not be sufficient to build a distinctive and meaningful career.
Young lawyers should learn to approach legal questions from different perspectives. They should question conventional assumptions, identify overlooked issues and develop the confidence to propose solutions that are not immediately obvious. Thinking outside the box does not mean disregarding established legal principles. It means using those principles creatively and responsibly to respond to new economic, technological and social realities.
He would also encourage young professionals to view law as a constructive discipline. Lawyers should not define their role exclusively through litigation or the resolution of disputes. They should contribute to designing contracts, institutions, regulations and projects capable of preventing disputes before they arise.
The lawyer’s role begins upstream. It involves anticipating risks, clarifying relationships, improving decision making and contributing to legal certainty. A lawyer who prevents a dispute may have created more value than one who successfully litigates it several years later.
Young lawyers should also understand that their work is connected to the preservation of the rule of law. Even when they practise business law or advise private companies, their work contributes to the reliability of institutions, the enforceability of commitments and confidence in the legal system.
Adam believes that lawyers should develop political and geopolitical awareness. This does not mean that lawyers must become partisan political actors. It means that they must understand the context in which legal norms are created.
Legislation and regulation are influenced by public policy choices, economic interests, institutional balances and international developments. A lawyer who ignores these factors may understand the wording of a rule without fully understanding its origins, objectives or likely evolution.
This contextual awareness is especially important in emerging economies, where legal reforms may be closely connected to economic transition, democratic development, institutional change and international relations.
Specialisation is also essential, but it must be pursued seriously. A lawyer cannot claim expertise in energy, technology, finance, telecommunications or infrastructure while remaining unfamiliar with the operational foundations of the relevant sector.
Young professionals who choose a specialised practice area should invest in understanding its technical language, economic structure and business models. They should attend specialised training, read beyond conventional legal literature and learn directly from engineers, economists, financial experts and operational professionals.
At the same time, specialisation should not eliminate intellectual versatility. The strongest specialists are often those who can connect their field with other disciplines and identify the broader implications of a legal issue.
Adam’s final advice concerns persistence and patience. A legal career is built gradually. Academic qualifications may provide an entry point, but professional credibility is developed through experience, discipline, reliability and the accumulation of specialised knowledge.
Young lawyers should not confuse visibility with expertise or rapid recognition with lasting success. It may take close to a decade of sustained effort before a lawyer begins to see the full results of the work, relationships and knowledge developed during the early years of practice.
They should therefore avoid excessive haste and remain focused on long term development. Difficult periods, professional setbacks and uncertainty are part of the process. They can become sources of maturity when approached with discipline and reflection.
Ultimately, Adam would advise young legal professionals to combine creativity with rigour, ambition with patience and specialisation with openness of mind. They should seek not only to build successful careers but also to become lawyers capable of anticipating change, strengthening institutions and creating meaningful value for their clients and societies.
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