Morgan Lewis has opened an office in Riyadh with a six-lawyer team including new recruits from A&O Shearman and local firm Al Tamimi & Company, becoming the latest in a procession of law firms to set up shop in Saudi Arabia.
M&A and capital markets partner Sultan Almasoud has joined to spearhead the launch from A&O Shearman, where he was co-managing partner of its Riyadh office. Sanjarbek Abdukhalilov has also joined as a M&A partner having been a consultant at PeerPoint, A&O Shearman’s flexible resourcing business, while dispute resolution specialist Saeed Algahtani has moved over recently from Al Tamimi as of counsel.
The team is completed by existing Morgan Lewis partner and Middle East and Africa dispute resolution head Sara Aranjo, who joined the firm in 2023 from Al Tamimi, alongside Middle East co-head and dispute resolution partner Ayman Khaleq and finance partner Sourabh Bhattacharya.
“Saudi Arabia has long been a vital part of our firm’s global practice, and our physical presence in Riyadh reflects a deepened investment in the country,” Morgan Lewis chair, Jami McKeon, said in a statement. “This is not a new market for us – it is a continuation of decades of trusted client relationships.”
He added: “With Sultan, Sanjarbek and Saeed joining our established regional team, we are fortifying our commitment by supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 objectives and delivering the best full-service counsel to clients in the kingdom and beyond.”
Almasoud was managing partner of legacy Shearman & Sterling’s Riyadh office for more than a decade before the firm’s merger to form A&O Shearman, after which he became co-managing partner. An expert on the legal framework of Saudi Arabia, he focuses on M&A, corporate restructurings, IPOs, joint ventures, capital market transactions and private placements.
He has advised Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a number of matters including the acquisition of a stake in a joint venture company between Saudi Aramco and Jacobs Engineering. He also advised NEOM Company, Saudi Arabia’s new city gigaproject development company, on a $8.4bn green energy joint venture with ACWA Power and Air Products and Dow Chemical Company on its joint venture to establish a downstream petrochemicals facility in Saudi Arabia.
An A&O Shearman spokesperson commented: “We thank Sultan Almasoud for the contribution he has made to the firm and wish him all the best for the future.”
The Riyadh office is Morgan Lewis’s third in the Middle East after the bases it launched in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2013 and 2019 respectively, which together house 40 lawyers according to the firm’s website. It will service institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds and state-owned entities, asset managers, family offices and multinational corporations on cross-border transactions, financings and disputes. The firm said the office would focus on sectors including digital infrastructure, energy, funds, aviation and emerging technologies such as AI.
Morgan Lewis’s Saudi launch follows the kingdom changing its code of law practice in 2023 to enable foreign firms to set up their own practices without the constraints of a local partner. The change came with a number of conditions, including that 70% of a firm’s lawyers must be Saudi nationals.
Dozens of leading US and UK law firms have opened offices in the kingdom or applied to do so since the rule changes, as Saudi Arabia becomes increasingly important for clients. The Saudi government’s Vision 2030 project to diversify its economy away from dependency on oil has seen it launch $1.3trn in real estate and infrastructure projects alone over the past eight years, Bloomberg reported.
Many law firms, like Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance and Linklaters, had previously operated there through associations with local outfits, while others, including Greenberg Traurig and CMS, have entered the market for the first time. In just the past few months Akin, Reed Smith and Freshfields have also announced Riyadh launches, while UK-headquartered Stephenson Harwood set up shop in Riyadh and the coastal city of Al Khobar.
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