Allen & Overy opened a new office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after receiving its license to operate in the region, the firm announced Monday.
The team in Riyadh includes A&O partners Hosam Ibn Ghaith and Haris Meyer Hanif. Following A&O’s merger with Shearman & Sterling, which is slated to close in May, the Riyadh office will be joined by Shearman’s local team led by Dr. Sultan Almasoud and includes partner Mohsin Suleman.
Allen & Overy, which ranks fifth on Bloomberg Law’s leader board of global law firm deal volume in Saudi Arabia, previously had an association with local firm Khoshaim & Associates, which it ended in 2020. Before Saudi introduced licensing to allow international law firms to operate in the region, firms struck affiliations with local partners.
The Saudi rule change has led to a large influx of firms to take advantage of a lucrative legal market backed by projects including the development of Neom, a sprawling futuristic city and investments into sports and entertainment, and other areas backed by a $700 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
Among firms operating in the region independently since last March are Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, and UK “Magic Circle” firms Clifford Chance and Linklaters.
“A&O has had a strong presence in the Middle East since 1978, including a long history of advising clients in the Kingdom,” said Khalid Garousha, regional managing partner for the Middle East and Turkey and interim global managing partner at A&O, who has been elected senior partner for A&O Shearman.
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