In 2014, I was working at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington as director of law when I received an interesting message on LinkedIn from Etihad Airways.
One thing led to another, and I was appointed head of legal at Etihad Airways based in Abu Dhabi.
I still remember the first day I landed in Abu Dhabi with my family—it was exciting but naturally we were all a bit apprehensive as well—new land, new job, new customers, and certainly a new legal and regulatory landscape.
I was also general counsel for the airline’s Loyalty Group which was an incredibly exciting and rewarding role, but there were so many new things to learn as a lawyer from the US. I was navigating a new business, new legal regime, new stakeholders, and quite a different way of doing business. I still remember when I received my physical stamp to stamp contracts—that is quite different from the US, where we do not have a physical stamp culture.
I found that in the GCC, most companies, even large enterprises, have smaller legal departments, compared to the US. When I left Microsoft, I worked with 500+ lawyers compared to Etihad, where the whole legal department had less than 20 lawyers. This means, quite often, you must be a jack of all trades—M&A, commercial law, bankruptcy, employment law, and many other areas of law that I was not previously exposed to, as in the US typically we specialise in a particular area of law.
The US legal system is generally inspired by common law but in many Middle Eastern jurisdictions, you are dealing with environments which combine aspects of common law with a heavy dose of civil law. Etihad was particularly challenging and yet rewarding as it operated in many international markets—from the Middle East to India to Europe and North America. As a US lawyer, while the first year at Etihad was challenging, I found that I became quite comfortable with advising on issues based in UAE law and other jurisdictions—all it took was intellectual curiosity to learn from colleagues and self-confidence to go out on a limb sometimes and take risks.
The UAE is probably one of the most diverse countries in the world, hence, working across different cultural styles and norms was an enriching experience. Even in Etihad’s legal department, my colleagues were from the UK, Germany, India, Russia, and the UAE, and this presented an excellent opportunity to learn from them. Since the UAE is an expat-heavy market, your colleagues often become very close friends and the work culture allows people to build life-long deep personal relationships, which is very helpful in settling in a new market.
On a personal level, the experience for myself and my family was quite rewarding as well. We quickly settled in a new city and my young kids were incredibly resilient in adapting to new schools, new friends, and a new way of life. The lifestyle in Abu Dhabi is very comfortable as access to all sorts of services and products that are from all over the world is quite easy. This experience gave the family ample opportunities to explore unfamiliar parts of the world. I still remember our family road trip to Oman and the first time we tried camel meat mandi (accidently!).
In 2021, we decided to move back to the US. The global and diverse experience in the UAE has provided me with quite a unique perspective that most typical US-based lawyers do not have.
Shahab Ahmed is assistant general counsel at Chewy, Inc in Miami. He was head of legal, head of privacy, and general counsel of the Loyalty Group at Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi from 2014 until 2021.
