Bird & Bird is expanding to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with plans to open an office in Riyadh, Law Middle East can exclusively reveal.
The global law firm confirmed it has received a licence to operate in the Kingdom from the Ministry of Justice, and will open an office in Tatweer Towers in Al Mohammadiyyah.
Bird & Bird received a professional investment licence from the Ministry of Investment in January and is now awaiting its commercial registration, the final procedural step ahead of the office launch.
It will be the firm’s third Middle East office after it opened in Dubai in 2013 and Abu Dhabi in 2011.
The new office aims to support both local and international clients in key sectors and practices in which the firm operates, with an initial focus on technology and intellectual property (IP), as well as transactional and general corporate advice.
It will be led by Anders Nilsson as head of the firm’s Middle East operations and will have three resident partners—Raya Alkhatib, Nick O’Connell, and Simon Shooter—supported by a team of three associate lawyers in Saudi Arabia. All three of the resident partners will be based in Riyadh.
Alkhatib advises local and international clients on a range of corporate matters, including mergers & acquisitions (M&A), company formation, initial public offerings (IPOs), rights issues, and real estate investment funds.
O’Connell is a data and technology specialist who has been based in Riyadh for most of the last seven years. He recently joined Bird & Bird from Al Tamimi & Company, where he led the firm’s technology, media & telecommunications (TMT) practice in Saudi Arabia. He advises local and international clients on matters ranging from transactional contracting work to regulatory advisory on technology, cloud, data, media, and telecoms issues.
Shooter is a commercial and technology partner and founder of the firm’s cybersecurity practice. He has been a partner with Bird & Bird for over 17 years and is regularly engaged in legal matters across the Gulf ranging from automotive to healthcare. He has previously worked in the firm’s London and Dubai offices.
“Being in Saudi Arabia at this time is an extraordinary opportunity,” said Shooter, whose experience in the Kingdom stretches back to the 1990s when he was an external lawyer to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London. “It is definitely the most exciting place on earth to be a lawyer at the moment.”
Continuing, he said:
“Our aim is to unlock the capacity of Bird & Bird and become the technology law firm for the Gulf; that is very deliberate, because it plays to our international reputation and the heritage of our firm.”
The trio will work with lawyers from across the firm’s UAE offices and internationally to achieve this ambition. Bird & Bird’s global technology team has over 900 lawyers.
The announcement of the new office follows recent investments in artificial intelligence (AI) within Saudi Arabia, the Gulf’s largest economy. Saudi Arabia last week announced the launch of HUMAIN, a state-backed AI company under the Public Investment Fund (PIF), signalling the importance the Kingdom places on advancing AI capabilities and attracting related expertise and investment.
The Bird & Bird partners indicated that future expansion would align with the firm’s core strengths and specified plans to enhance the expertise in related areas such as IP, media, and sports law in the near future, recognising the increasing significance of these areas in driving legal work in Saudi Arabia.
“Our expectation is that we will expand dramatically, quickly, because of the work that we expect to build up,” said Shooter.
With Saudi Arabia’s legal reforms attracting international law firms eager to capitalise on its Vision 2030 strategy and resulting economic activity, O’Connell explained the firm’s tailored approach sets it apart in a competitive market.
“Saudi Arabia is not so much of a crowded market in terms of TMT and data, which is our initial focus,” he said. “There are plenty of international law firms that dabble in it, but I have been to meetings or consultations where some that have very good pedigrees globally in sophisticated technology matters are being represented by a lawyer that specialises in, say, trademark applications. So, the fact they might have global expertise does not necessarily mean they have any genuine on the ground expertise in that type of work, whereas we do.”
Alkhatib agreed, saying: “The pie here in Saudi Arabia is pretty big; I think there is a piece of the pie for everyone, and we definitely have a good chunk of that piece.”
A specialist in corporate law, having joined the firm over a year ago from a general counsel position at American Express in Saudi Arabia, Alkhatib said a key part of her role will be to attract foreign investment into the Kingdom by helping businesses set up their operations, advise on structural considerations such as the Regional Headquarters (RHQ) programme, and keep them informed of the latest regulations.
“There is a lot of interest in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “I think it is very important that we continue to offer competitive prices and win mandates as much as possible.”
Nilsson, who is based in Abu Dhabi, but will spend time in the firm’s upcoming Riyadh office, said: “We are looking forward to opening our new office in Riyadh. We are committed to assist both our local and international clients in this rapidly evolving market, cementing our market-leading reputation in the Middle East for advising businesses and public bodies within key areas such as technology and digital transformation, IP and brand commercialisation, media and sports, as well as aviation and automotive.”
