Four months after shutting down its Abu Dhabi office and two years after terminating its association with a Saudi Arabian firm, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is returning to Riyadh.
Continue reading “Middle East moves: Herbert Smith Freehills to reopen in Saudi Arabia”
Just two months after severing its ties with South African affiliate, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, DLA Piper is launching two new African offices in Johannesburg and Casablanca.
Continue reading “Entering Africa: DLA Piper launches in Morocco and South Africa”
Last month saw DLA Piper and South African firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr end their ten-year formal alliance over integration and branding issues, with the international firm making plans to open a greenfield site in Johannesburg to preserve a presence in the market.
DLA wanted Cliffe Dekker, which carries the DLA branding, to become more closely integrated with the firm. However, the majority of the partnership at Cliffe Dekker felt they would lose too much independence and freedom to operate as a result. At the time the duo said they would continue to maintain a relationship to support existing client relationships and refer clients where appropriate.
After Saudi Arabia’s liberalisation of its capital markets, Dechert has established a presence in the Kingdom by forming an association with the Law Firm of Hassan Mahassni. Shearman & Sterling also bolstered its presence in the Middle East with a new office in Dubai.
DLA Piper and its South African affiliate, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, are ending their formal alliance as the international firm looks to strengthen its presence in the country.
Reduced to just one partner in Abu Dhabi, Herbert Smith Freehills is shutting the office and shifting its five-lawyer team to Dubai just six years after opening.
While Morocco stands apart as a portal into Africa for foreign investors, neighbour Algeria starts to open up. We ask international law firms to share their experiences of working in the region.
In the globalisation race, Casablanca has established an early lead as one of the primary entry points into Africa, along with Johannesburg. It is akin to the emergence in the last decade of Hong Kong and Singapore as the key finance centres for Asia. But can Morocco and neighbouring Algeria achieve a position of genuine global influence, when Paris, London and also Dubai remain places where many African transactions are executed?
Continue reading “Gateways – the lawyer’s view on gaining access to North Africa”
Latham & Watkins doesn’t make strategic missteps. Or at least that appeared to be the case until March, when the firm announced that it will close both its Abu Dhabi and Qatar offices later this year, relocating staff to its Dubai operation. Bill Voge, chair and managing partner of the firm that has been by most yardsticks the standout success story of the last 20 years, said the firm had been wrong in assuming there were four distinct hubs that the firm needed to service clients in the Middle East – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – and so after seven years in the region, the firm was consolidating its Middle East presence into Dubai and Riyadh.
For international firms, finding the appropriate business model and strategy for the Middle East has been a puzzle. The region was never more alluring than at the height of the pre-financial crisis period of 2007 and 2008. Intoxicated by crude oil prices at nearly $150 a barrel in the summer of 2008, the Middle East could hardly have felt more prosperous. As ostentation gripped the region, Dubai powered ahead with ambitious projects such as the man-made archipelago Palm Jumeirah and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Naturally, the legal profession sought to capitalise.
Richard McLerie of JLegal outlines the picture across the region.
When trying to predict what the legal recruitment market will look like in the Gulf region it is easy to be seen as sitting on the fence. There are conflicting signs at every turn and until every scenario plays out, it is impossible to tell how it will affect the region.
Following its Canada merger last month with Vancouver-based Davis, DLA Piper has embarked on further international expansion opening a second office in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and plans for a third in the country.
Continue reading “Middle East: DLA Piper opens second office in Saudi Arabia with plans for a third”
