Kirkland & Ellis has launched a construction practice in Riyadh, the firm’s new regional headquarters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It comes as the Kingdom undergoes major transformations, backed by a number of gigaprojects and government initiatives, in line with Vision 2030.
The new practice adds to the firm’s existing offering in project finance, energy and infrastructure to service clients across the whole project lifecycle, according to an announcement by the firm.
It is led by James Clark, a construction and projects partner, who joined the firm in October 2023.
Clark has close to 15 years of global construction experience, with a particular focus on gigaprojects, major infrastructure projects, renewable and traditional energy projects, transport projects and relationship-based project delivery models.
“We launched a construction practice to meet the needs of our clients in the Middle East and beyond with teams based in both Riyadh and the US,” he told Law Middle East in a statement. “We were particularly excited to launch the construction practice in coordination with opening our Riyadh office given the importance of serving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 project delivery program and related gigaprojects, renewable energy, and major event infrastructure requirements.”
Kirkland, the world’s largest law firm by revenue, opened an office in Riyadh in October 2023, luring top Saudi talent from rivals Latham & Watkins and White & Case. It was the first international law firm to establish the office as its regional headquarters, under the new Regional Headquarters (RHQ) programme, though it only has one office in the Middle East. In Riyadh, Kirkland is understood to have grown to around 20 legal professionals, with core specialisms including corporate, capital markets, projects, and restructuring.
Clark added: “The team is incredibly talented and has extensive global and market-leading experience in all aspects of front-end project development and delivery, especially in gigaprojects and renewable energy projects.”
