Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance strengthens presence in Saudi Arabia.

Clifford Chance has further strengthened its relationship with Al Jadaan & Partners Law Firm, through the secondment of two new senior Clifford Chance lawyers and four  associates to Riyadh.

Omar Rashid, Counsel, brings with him a wealth of international and regional corporate and equity capital markets experience, having recently advised the respective investment banks on the “du” rights issue and Aluminium Bahrain IPO. Omar advises local, regional and international clients in relation to inbound and outbound investment in/out of Saudi Arabia in the form of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, public takeovers, equity investments and initial public offerings.

Omar arrived in Riyadh shortly after the Clifford Chance banking and finance team had increased its presence by the secondment of Paul Latto, Counsel. Paul has extensive international and regional experience in bank lending and related areas, including acquisition finance, restructuring and insolvency, projects/asset finance and Islamic finance. Paul has acted on a number of the region’s highest profile and most complex finance transactions and is recognised in banking and finance by Chambers Global.

Omar and Paul have been appointed joint head of corporate and capital markets and joint head of banking and finance respectively within the Al-Jadaan practice, alongside Al-Jadaan corporate partner Khalid Al-Abdulkareem and banking partner Abdulaziz Al-Abduljabbar. Their teams have been further strengthened with the addition of two new associates in each of the corporate and the finance departments from the Clifford Chance network and laterally.

In the last year, in addition to the above, Clifford Chance also seconded senior regulatory partner, Tim Plews, to Al Jadaan & Partners. Tim had previously worked as a partner in the regulatory team in the London office, Joint Managing Partner of the London office's Finance and Capital Markets Practices, Member of the London office Management Group, Co-Head of the Financial Services and Markets Group, London office  and Member of the London office Strategy Group and has a wide variety of local Saudi and international regulatory experience.

These recent additions demonstrate the firm's commitment to the Saudi market, their Saudi practice and their longstanding cooperation with Saudi's pre-eminent law firm, Al Jadaan & Partners.

These hires and moves are as a result of an increasing demand for Clifford Chance (through Al Jadaan & Partners) to work with the best clients on the most innovative transactions. In recent months these have included advising on: a SAR 1 billion Sukuk issuance by Bank Aljazirah, a SAR5 billion Murabaha Facility for Saudi Electricity Company, Saudi Tabreed on its District Cooling Project, NorSun on the sale of a Saudi joint-venture company to KCC Corporation, Saudi Telecom on its directory service outsourcing to Aegis and Ma’aden's project financing.

Tim Plews commented: "Clifford Chance now has an outstanding team seconded to Al-Jadaan & Partners.  The total number of lawyers now stands at 24.  As a result, the firm is very well placed to take advantage of the opportunities in Saudi Arabia as markets develop there over the next few years."

Mohammed Al-Jadaan, the managing partner of Al-Jadaan & Partners Law Firm commented: "Our co-operation agreement with Clifford Chance is in its second decade and progressing well.  I am delighted to see Clifford Chance increasing its commitment to us and to legal services in Saudi Arabia."