Two partners moved this week. One of them helped write the rules his new firm now works under.
Musab Aljammaz has left Eversheds Sutherland in Riyadh to run the regulatory practice at Akin. Before private practice he spent six years at the Saudi Ministry of Justice, where he set up the Legislations Office. That office worked on more than 50 laws, including the rules that decide which foreign law firms get a licence in the Kingdom. He was also put on the Bankruptcy Commission by the Council of Ministers. Two associates and a regulatory specialist went with him: Leen Almoaiqel, Ali AlAraifi and Abdullah Alotaibi.
Akin opened in Riyadh in 2025. If you are a Saudi lawyer who has worked inside government, the foreign firms want you.
Adnan Bekdur has left White & Case in Dubai after more than ten years, most recently as a local partner, and joined Dechert as a corporate partner. Dechert says it now has a corporate practice in Dubai for the first time. His work is M&A, private equity and sovereign wealth funds. He is one of more than 50 lateral partners Dechert has hired this year.
A partner hired to start a practice needs associates. If you do M&A or funds in Dubai at senior associate level, you may hear from him.
Aljammaz's old firm is the one that named Zeid Hanania its Middle East managing partner from 1 January.
No Gulf company announced a new general counsel or head of legal this week. I checked the trade press, the company sites and LinkedIn. The adverts tell a different story. Three senior in-house seats went live in three days and each had more than 100 applicants within a day or two. They are below.
Abu Dhabi signed four agreements with OpenAI on Monday. ADNOC is the first energy company anywhere to run OpenAI's frontier models, on servers inside the UAE. Mubadala will use them for investment analysis. The one that matters for lawyers: Abu Dhabi is turning selected regulations into a form a machine can read, so officials can check a permit application against the rules. The first pilot is live, on food imports. Officials keep the final say. If your company holds Abu Dhabi licences, that is how your next renewal may be checked.
Legaline, a UAE legal tech company, launched a courtroom simulator at the Dubai AI Festival on 26 October. Trainees cross-examine AI witnesses in front of an AI judge, under UAE onshore, DIFC or ADGM rules. Each witness is built to hide one fact, and the trainee has to find it. Its founder, Dmitry Grinik: "Many lawyers conduct their first cross-examination with a real client's case on the line, and it is the client who pays for any mistake." Law schools get it free. The same company already sells a drafting tool it says turns out a contract in about 15 seconds, and a research assistant covering 35 areas of law.
Independent Food Company, the group behind SALT and Parker's, is hiring a Head of Legal for Dubai: 12 to 15 years, five of them running a legal team, covering the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UK. Over 100 applicants in a day.
Daikin wants a Corporate Legal Manager in Riyadh: ten years, Arabic and English, two direct reports, reporting into its European legal team. Over 100 people clicked apply in two days.
A Doha employer that has not put its name on the advert wants a General Counsel for corporate affairs and governance: board secretary, government relations and compliance in one seat, five to ten years, a US bar exam optional. Over 100 applicants in a day.
An international firm in the DIFC is hiring into six seats. It wants a debt capital markets associate at three to six years, a newly qualified financial regulation lawyer, a banking senior associate, a funds associate and two technology lawyers. A Dubai company wants an in-house M&A lawyer at seven years and up. An Abu Dhabi developer wants a general counsel. A Riyadh team wants regulatory lawyers. The names come once we speak. If one of those is you, write to me.
If you are trying to fill a seat, reply with the title and I will tell you inside 24 hours who is movable.
The man who helped write the licensing rules for foreign law firms in Saudi Arabia now works for one. Riyadh is a small town.
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Nigel Byrne
Legal Route, Dubai
Nigel Byrne is Managing Director of Legal Route, a Gulf legal search and market intelligence firm in Dubai. Legal Route places general counsel, heads of legal, in-house counsel and law firm partners across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, and publishes the Gulf Legal Salary Guide, the Gulf legal moves tracker and this weekly brief.