The Legal 500

Work Department

Banking & Finance / Corporate & Commercial.

Position

Managing partner, Riyadh. Acts for many local and international commercial, investment banks and investment firms, Fortune 500 companies and Saudi trading houses and corporations in relation to a wide range of financing, corporate and capital market transactions. He has represented developers in negotiating the first private sector petrochemical financing structured along classic project finance lines using Western and Islamic legal concepts. Structured the first merger in the Kingdom. Led the team that developed the structure for the first privatisation and follow on public offering of a Saudi government asset (the telecoms sector), as well as the team that structured and helped implement the award-winning first international securitisation in Saudi Arabia. Presently involved in structuring capital market transactions and leading a team involved in the privatisation and restructuring of the government-owned mining sector.

Career

Joined Baker & McKenzie 1980; partner 1986; managing partner 1987 to date; he has published articles on capital markets legislation and privatisation in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Xefos has also delivered lectures at the law schools of Harvard and Cornell on the application of the Shariah to modern commercial transactions.

Member

Illinois and American Bar Associations.

Education

Cornell University (1977 BA with distinction); University of Pennsylvania (Joint Program in Middle East Studies and Islamic Law) (1980 JD).