GLA & Company

Partner

Asad Ahmad a Partner and leads the Antitrust and Competition Practice at GLA & Co, where he is widely recognised for his deep expertise in merger control, competition law, and complex corporate transactions. He advises on high-value and strategically sensitive matters across a broad range of sectors, including renewable energy, financial services, data protection, education, and healthcare. Asad has extensive experience conducting sophisticated due diligence for complex mergers and acquisitions, antitrust risk assessments, navigating cross-border distribution and commercial arrangements, and ensuring compliance with evolving corporate and regulatory frameworks across multiple jurisdictions.

A seasoned corporate and competition lawyer, Asad is highly skilled in structuring, negotiating, and executing intricate transactions, and is known for his ability to deliver commercially pragmatic solutions in highly regulated environments. His unique professional background includes more than a decade of experience in the healthcare sector as a registered respiratory therapist, providing him with a rare, practical understanding of regulated industries that significantly enhances his legal advice, particularly in merger control and regulatory matters involving healthcare and life sciences. Asad is regarded as a tenacious and strategic advocate for his clients and was recognised with the Rising Star Award by The Law MEA in 2023.

His experience includes negotiating and drafting asset purchase agreements and related disclosure schedules, intellectual property and licensing agreements, professional services and online marketing agreements, confidentiality and non-competition/non-solicitation agreements, as well as advising clients on service mark and trademark availability, registrability, and protection. Asad also has experience in commercial litigation, including drafting pleadings, preparing for depositions, managing discovery processes, and handling interrogatories and requests for production.

Recent Experience

Corporate

Represented DSV Panalpina in its acquisition of the logistics division of Agility Public Warehousing Company as MENA counsel in an all-share deal worth US$ 4.1 billion, the largest merger & acquisition transaction in the MENA region in 2021; Acted as Kuwait Counsel for IBM, in its global business model restructuring of its hardware, software, and services; Represented Marriot Drilling, the largest onshore deep drilling and associated services company, in its agreement to provide drilling services on various oil and gas wells within the State of Kuwait; Represented Beghelli Präzisa GmbH, a leading developer, manufacture, and distributer of emergency lighting in the world, in its distribution arrangement; Represent DHL, a global logistics service provider, as Kuwait council in its agency and distribution arrangements; Represented Ulysse Nardin, a world leading luxury watch brand, in its business operations in the State of Kuwait, including proper termination of an agency arrangement and establishment of an favorable distribution arrangement; Represented Trafalgar General Trading Company, a Kuwait-based retailer of luxury fashion products including (Chopard, Dior, Gucci, Aigner, TAG, Heuer, Versace, Escada, Swarovski, Burberry, Montegrappa), in its collaboration with Tiffany & Co in the State of Kuwait.

Banking & Finance (Conventional & Sharia-Compliant)

Appointed as transaction co-counsel with respect to a US$ 180,000,000 financing from Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank to Kuwait Finance House; Appointed as transaction co-counsel with respect to a US$ 75,000,000 financing from Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank to Warba Bank

Commercial Advisory

Advised Kitopi, world’s leading managed cloud kitchen, with respect to its business structure in the state of Kuwait and its internal employment policies; Represented the University for the Creative Arts, the top creative specialist university in the UK, in its collaboration to create and establish an undergraduate/postgraduate foreign co-operative university in the State of Kuwait. Represented Santen SA, one of the world leaders in the ophthalmic pharmaceutical market, in its distribution arrangements in the state of Kuwait and Qata Currently advising AbbVie Biopharmaceuticals, a world leading biopharmaceutical company, with respect to its overall business arrangement and operations in the state of Kuwait. Advise National Advisory Services Company WLL, with respect to its joint venture collaboration in relation to the Norther and Southern Kuwait Excavation, Transportation and Remediation projects.

English and Arabic

(US) State of Ohio Bar (US) State of Ohio Medical Board – Respiratory Care

The University of Akron School of Law – Akron, Ohio, USA, Juris Doctor (2015) Bowling Green State University – Bowling Green, Ohio, USA, Bachelor’s in Applied Sciences and Specialty in Department Management (2010)