Law Firm highlights – March 2023

• Dentons has joined the first wave of international law firms to be granted a foreign law firm license by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice. Operating in association with The Law Firm of Wael A. Alissa, Dentons has offices in Riyadh and Jeddah and has one of the largest international practices in the Kingdom. Led by managing partner Nick Simpson, the Saudi team, comprising both Saudi Arabian and expatriate lawyers, has advised several of the world’s largest companies on their investments into the country. “Dentons’ presence in the Middle East stretches back over 50 years, and during our time here we have played an important role in many of the region’s key milestones,” said UK, Ireland and Middle East CEO Paul Jarvis. “We are delighted to continue our relationship with Wael A. Alissa. Becoming one of the first international law firms to have a foreign licence marks an exciting new chapter in our longstanding relationship with the region.” A cross-practise team of Saudi lawyers and colleagues from Dentons’ offices in London, New York, Melbourne and Brussels recently advised the National Incentives Committee on seven of twelve economic support deals that form part of the Shareek Program which is designed to unlock the full potential of the Kingdom’s private sector in order to help achieve GDP growth. “Our involvement in the Shareek projects cements Dentons’ strong track record of advising on opportunities relating to Saudi’s ongoing development defined by Vision 2030,’ said Nick Simpson. “We are honoured to have been granted a foreign law firm license and look forward to continuing to support regional and international clients on their most important matters in the Kingdom.”

• Linklaters has announced that it has been granted a licence by the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to practise law from a new Linklaters office in Riyadh. The new office, the firm’s third in the Middle East alongside Dubai and Abu Dhabi, will be led by existing Linklaters partners Waleed Rasromani (corporate) and Omar El Sayed (banking) as well as new Linklaters partner Amro Bakhaidar, who is a leading specialist in equity capital markets and public M&A transactions in Saudi Arabia. Amro has experience across a wide range of corporate and capital markets transactions including IPOs, rights issues, public M&A, securities issuances, private placements, investment funds and general corporate regulatory and advisory work. He has advised local, international and government entities on transactions in the energy, shipping, banking, insurance, real estate, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Jonathan Fried, Linklaters middle east managing partner said, “We would like to thank the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for approving our licence application. The licence, combined with our decade-long experience, will allow us to continue to deploy our capabilities and expertise across multiple practice areas and sectors in support of our clients in the Kingdom. We would like to thank our clients, old and new, who continue to place their trust in us in relation to their most important matters.”

• Squire Patton Boggs has announced that it has terminated its affiliation with the Khalid Al-Thebity Law Firm in Riyadh. The firm gave notice of its termination in November 2022, with the intention of forming a Saudi office and practice under the regulation governing foreign firms practicing law in the Kingdom A spokesperson commented that Squire Patton Boggs took this decision to position itself for maximum growth in Saudi Arabia over the coming years under the new legal regulatory structure there. Firm Chair/Global CEO Mark Ruehlmann commented, “The coming decade promises to be a time of immense growth and development in Saudi Arabia.  We are committed to being in the Kingdom, are proud of our long history advising clients in and with interests in the Kingdom, and we are positioning ourselves to be the ‘go to’ firm in Saudi Arabia for years to come.”

• Coinciding with International Women’s Day (IWD), Reed Smith, along with global consultancy HKA, has launched a webinar series, titled ‘Maximising female talent in construction’, celebrating women in the MENA construction industry. The three sessions, starting in March and running until September 2023, seek to support the drive for greater gender diversity in the construction industry and will feature leading women in the sector from the Middle East to share their experiences, challenges, successes, and insights. As part of Reed Smith’s global Women’s Initiative Network (WINRS) program, leading female lawyers from the UAE construction disputes team have collaborated with HKA to host the series. Attracting and retaining female talent in the construction industry, the first of the webinars hosted by Reed Smith and HKA, took place on March 21, 2023, moderated by Michelle Nelson, Reed Smith’s leading construction disputes partner in the Middle East. The panel focused on root causes of gender disparities in the MENA construction industry starting with the life-cycle of career development from education through to challenges associated with attracting and retaining female talent in the industry, to best practice, ideas and innovations for change. Reed Smith and HKA have put together an impressive panel of speakers to share their experiences and insight. Panellists include Emma Seymour, senior partner at Gratiya Advisory, Chris Bernard, partner at Global People Recruitment & Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, HKA, and Alison Watson MBE, founder and chief executive at Class of Your Own Limited. The webinars are designed for all women currently working in or looking to enter the construction industry, including emerging talent, future leaders and those at the pinnacle of their careers. Men are equally welcome and encouraged to join the webinars. Each session will feature a premier industry voice, sharing their experiences, lessons learned, and insights that will fuel the next generation of female leaders. Other sessions in the series will focus on “Breaking the mould – how women can succeed in the construction industry” (June 2023) and “Pay it forward – why mentoring matters for women in the construction industry” (September 2023).

• Addleshaw Goddard has announced that it is applying for approval to open an office in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Addleshaw Goddard’s Middle East practice has grown significantly in recent years and KSA, as the biggest economy in the region, is a key part of the firm’s plans for the future. Addleshaw Goddard’s fourth office in the MENA region and 17th overall will be led by Andrew Johnston, Addleshaw Goddard’s Head of Middle East and Asia, and will initially include three high profile partners – Ibrahim Siddiki who joins from Bracewell in Dubai, where he led the KSA corporate M&A practice as a partner, Homam Khoshaim, an M&A expert formerly at Latham & Watkins, and a leading banking and finance lawyer joining imminently from a U.S. firm. Projects & Infrastructure partner Alex Sarac completes the five-strong partner group and is relocating to Riyadh from Addleshaw Goddard’s Dubai office. AG’s presence in KSA, the fastest growing country in the G20, is still subject to regulatory clearance. On launch day, the office will also comprise eight lawyers and paralegals. The 13-strong team will offer expertise in corporate, banking and finance and infrastructure assignments and has broad sector expertise in energy, oil and gas, renewables, infrastructure, transport, technology, hospitality, manufacturing and consumer goods which aligns closely with KSA Vision 2030. AG’s aspiration in KSA is to provide clients with a full-service capability in order to support a wide range of inbound and outbound assignments.

• UAE Firm Habib Al Mulla & Partners and Lebanese Dispute Resolution Powerhouse Hage-Chahine Law firm announced a strategic association aimed at providing clients with high-quality legal services and solutions in the UAE and beyond. The two firms will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on March 14, 2023, in Dubai which allows Hage-Chahine Law Firm to establish a physical presence in the UAE in association with Habib Al Mulla & Partners and enable the two firms to set up a mutual collaboration across multiple jurisdictions, along with access to a broader range of clientele in Europe and the MENA Region. “We are proud to be associated with Hage-Chahine law-firm, which is one of the most prestigious and well-established law firms in Lebanon, with reach to other jurisdictions as well,” said Dr. Habib Al Mulla, founder of Habib Al Mulla and Partners. “In today’s world, businesses operate in various jurisdictions and require different sets of expertise. Law-firms need to follow the same trend to efficiently service their clients. The collaboration between law-firms in different jurisdictions is the right step in this direction.” Pro. Nagib Hage-Chahine, managing partner of Hage-Chahine Law firm, added, “We are honored to collaborate with Habib Al Mulla and Partners, a firm that has established itself as a leader in the legal sector. Our firms share a passion for delivering strategic legal solutions that optimize our clients’ business operations. We look forward to working together to provide clients with comprehensive legal solutions that meet their unique needs and challenges.” Founded in 1984, Habib Al Mulla and Partners has extensive experience in helping foreign and local clients effectively conduct business in the UAE. The firm’s lawyers have keen insight into the complexities involved with working under the jurisdiction of UAE law, and with intimate knowledge of the different regulatory structures governing the region’s business sectors, Habib Al Mulla and Partners delivers strategic legal solutions that optimise clients’ business operations in the UAE. With offices in Paris and Beirut, Hage-Chahine Law firm is a corporate law firm in Lebanon and France dedicated to providing comprehensive legal services to businesses and corporate entities that operate in Europe and the Middle East. The firm has established itself as one of the market leaders in Dispute Resolution and managed to become one of the major players in the Middle East Legal Market. The collaboration between Habib Al Mulla & Partners and Hage-Chahine Law firm is set to be a game-changer in the UAE’s legal sector, providing clients with top-tier cross-border legal services and solutions tailored to meet their specific needs.

• HFW has continued to support the development of a new Geneva Declaration designed to define and defend the human rights of the global maritime population and those crossing the world’s oceans and seas. HFW previously carried out a joint review of the Declaration on behalf of UK-based NGO Human Rights at Sea (HRAS), which produced the proposed international convention in 2022 following three years of research and drafting by a team of experts in public, international, humanitarian and refugee law. The firm has now translated the Declaration into nine different languages – Ukrainian, Russian, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and Spanish – to assist HRAS’ efforts to secure the support of States around the world for submission to the UN Human Rights Council to formally adopt the Declaration. With the war in Ukraine now entering its second year, HRAS is discreetly supporting in-conflict and post-conflict activities to obtain justice for victims of human rights abuses, in particular the coastal communities in The Black Sea and Sea of Azov. The Declaration targets human rights abuses stemming from piracy, criminal violence, breaches of maritime labour rights, seafarer abandonment, slavery, trafficking, child labour, and failures in equality and inclusion. It applies to seafarers, fishers, workers in offshore oil and gas, and the tourism industry and extends to passengers, scientists, state officials on naval and coast guard vessels, migrants and refugees, and people involved in unlawful activities. The Declaration is structured around the understanding that the protection of human rights at sea rests on four fundamental principles.

• Allen & Overy (A&O), the leading international law firm, has broken new ground by integrating Harvey, the innovative artificial intelligence platform built on a version of Open AI’s latest models enhanced for legal work, into its global practice. Harvey will empower more than 3,500 of A&O’s lawyers across 43 offices operating in multiple languages with the ability to generate and access legal content with unmatched efficiency, quality and intelligence. A&O has been trialling Harvey in beta since November 2022 under the leadership of a team of lawyers and developers tasked with disrupting the legal industry, called the Markets Innovation Group (MIG). At the end of the trial, around 3500 of A&O’s lawyers had asked Harvey around 40,000 queries for their day-to-day client work. Harvey is a platform that uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to automate and enhance various aspects of legal work, such as contract analysis, due diligence, litigation and regulatory compliance. Whilst the output needs careful review by an A&O lawyer, Harvey can help generate insights, recommendations and predictions based on large volumes of data, enabling lawyers to deliver faster, smarter and more cost-effective solutions to their clients. Harvey, which received seed funding from the OpenAI Startup Fund, was founded by a team of former lawyers, engineers and entrepreneurs who share a vision of transforming the legal industry with technology.The ground-breaking deal will give A&O a significant competitive edge in the market, as it will be able to advise clients using the most advanced and comprehensive AI platform in the legal sector combined with the proven prestige, quality and experience of one of the world’s best and oldest law firms.

• CMS UK has announced that it has become a member of the Carbon Call, coinciding with the initiative’s first anniversary. The Carbon Call is a fast-growing global initiativeto help close the 8.5 to 13.3 bn ton gap in underreported greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  It is hosted by ClimateWorks Foundation, a leading global platform for climate philanthropy. Since its inception in 2022, it has actively worked to identify and address constraints in GHG emissions reporting and serve as a problem-solving collective to drive innovative solutions forward.  The initiative mobilises collective action, investment and resources to strengthen a more reliable and interoperable carbon accounting system for the planet. Sustainability is a central and strategic priority for CMS which became one of the first major law firms to commit to set Science Based Targets in 2018. Now approved, the near-term targets focus on 30 per cent-reduction of emissions by 2025 and 50 per cent-reduction by 2030 for our own operations, as well as for our supply chain. The firm will also look to offset remaining emissions to go carbon neutral by 2025 and has introduced a programme of over 20 workstreams to address climate change. The firm was awarded A- by the Carbon Disclosure Projects (CDP) for how it is addressing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and A for supply chain efforts. This is above the legal sector average score of C. CDP runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts.