BCLP's new partner in Riyadh came from a government body, not another law firm.
Zayd Alathari has joined BCLP in Riyadh as a partner. He came from the Saudi Water Authority. Before that he was at SABIC, and before that a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, running IP for the Middle East and North Africa. He does technology deals, licensing and joint ventures.
At SABIC he worked with two BCLP partners, Sam Eversman and Marcus Pearl. Now he is one of them.
Akin's Riyadh hire last week had six years inside a ministry behind him. The foreign firms in the Kingdom want people who have sat in the client's chair. If you are in-house at a Saudi company or authority and were once a partner, or close to it, the door back is open.
Galadari has hired Hanan Al-Qennah as senior counsel in its legislative strategy and regulations practice. Al-Qennah has spent more than 30 years in the UAE and Jordan advising government bodies and chambers of commerce on laws, regulations and licensing. The firm also promoted Amir Zafar Khan to counsel in its corporate team.
One new general counsel this week, and the seat is on loan. Simona Spazzini has started as General Counsel at IIT Delhi's Abu Dhabi campus, seconded through Peerpoint. I expect more of this. The employer gets a senior lawyer in the chair now and decides on the permanent hire later.
Commercial Bank of Dubai's legal team is taking on Harvey for research, drafting and document review. The bank's lawyers will build their own agents for repeat work. Expect bank legal teams here to start asking candidates what they have automated.
Raytheon is hiring a General Counsel for Raytheon Emirates in Abu Dhabi: 14 years in a common law jurisdiction, or 12 with a higher law degree, on site at ADGM. The advert went up on 9 November and more than 100 people have clicked apply.
A semi-government body in Riyadh wants a Legal Director who also runs board affairs: 12 years, five of them in a senior leadership role. More than 100 applicants in four days.
A Doha group is hiring a General Counsel. Shareholders, the board, acquisitions and disputes sit in one seat, and Arabic is strongly preferred. More than 100 applicants in six days.
Most of those applicants will not have the years. The ones who do are in jobs and are not reading adverts.
On my own desk this week: a firm in the DIFC needs funds, banking and debt capital markets associates, and an Abu Dhabi investment firm wants a senior counsel for venture and private credit deals.
If you are trying to fill a seat, reply with the title and I will tell you inside 24 hours who is movable.
Norton Rose Fulbright has helped launch a fund in the DIFC that lends to English law firms against books of high-volume legal claims. The target is £250 million and the shares are issued as tokens. Funds lawyers who can paper that are scarce here.
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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.