K&L Gates > Doha, Qatar > Firm Profile

K&L Gates Offices

K&L Gates
QATAR FINANCIAL CENTRE BRANCH
31ST FLOOR TORNADO TOWER, AL FUNDUQ STREET,P.O. BOX 26100
WEST BAY, DOHA
Qatar
Visit website 974 4424 6100 974 4424 6101

K&L Gates > The Legal 500 Rankings

Qatar > Banking, finance and capital markets Tier 2

Amjad Hussain leads the Middle East banking and Islamic finance team at K&L Gates, a ‘master of his craft‘ whose practice spans transactional and regulatory work. Pairing its ‘deep understanding of local practices‘ with particular real estate investment trusts strength, the team advises clients including major banks and financial institutions. Islamic finance is also an area of expertise for the team, including cross-border secured financing, restructurings, and Sukuk. Simon Chan is a key partner – a ‘diligent, practical’ ‘rising star’, Chan specialises in Shari’ah-compliant project financings.

Practice head(s):

Amjad Hussain

Other key lawyers:

Simon Chan

Testimonials

‘Excellent managing partner interaction with Amjad Hussein.’

‘The unique team proposition is that on most work a leading global expert works with the local team. This is quite unique and attractive.’

‘Amjad Hussein is a brilliant technical legal mind that rounds it off with great acumen for what is implementable.’

‘Client-centric results and output based approach that gets the job done.’

‘Simon Chan is diligent, practical and works hard to deliver for his clients.’

‘Amjad Hussain provides strong leadership, technical guidance and client management.’

‘The team has unrivalled experience in the Qatar market with a deep understanding of local practices. They provide outstanding service to clients that is always promptly delivered, to the point and balanced.’

‘Amjad Hussain is a master of his craft. A seasoned lawyer with a reputation for delivering on big ticket items in a pragmatic and highly effective way. Simon Chan has quickly forged a cult following that provides clients with the exemplary service they require.’

Key clients

Dukhan Bank QPSC

Lesha Bank |(previously known as Qatar First Bank LLC)

The Commercial Bank of Qatar (P.S.Q.C.) |(previously known as Commercial Bank (Q.S.C.)

Doha Bank Q.S.C.

QInvest LLC

Lendable Asset Management LLC

Qatar Islamic Bank (Q.P.S.C.)

Zad Holding Company Q.P.S.C. |(previously known as Qatar Flour Mills Company SAQ)

Qatar National Bank Q.P.S.C. (QNB Group)

Work highlights

  • Advised Lesha Bank on a €20m Shari’ah-complaint financing to a Qatar consortium to purchase a 10.8% stake in Ennismore, an international hospitality group.
  • Advised Lesha Bank on its co-investment, alongside CVC Capital Partners VIII Limited, in Unilever’s global tea business, Ekaterra B.V.
  • Advised Lendable Asset Management on their Shari’ah-compliant wakala facilities to Alif Lamim Investment Pte Ltd. for the $30m financing of an Indonesian P2P lending platform.

Qatar > Commercial, corporate and M&A Tier 2

The ‘full function specialist team‘ at K&L Gates boasts a specialism in handling high-value, strategic transactions, including those which are cross-border in nature. Amjad Hussain, team head, is praised for his ‘highly effective’ ability to get ‘major deals across the line’. ‘Legal powerhouse’ Jaime Oon is both English and Malaysian qualified; and Joelle Salame is experienced in a range of large-scale multijurisdictional restructuring projects. The team’s sector expertise includes equity capital markets, M&A matters, asset management, and global defence.

Practice head(s):

Amjad Hussain

Other key lawyers:

Joelle Salame; Jaime Oon

Testimonials

‘The K&L Gates team is a full function specialist team. They are aided by a vast network of lawyers across the world giving them access to unparalleled resources and experience on a real time basis.’

‘Amjad Hussain is the rainmaker and is both personable and humble yet highly effective in getting major deals across the line. His effective and responsive style results in repeat business from all his dedicated clients.’

‘Jaime Oon is a legal powerhouse that delivers consistently high services year in and year out. Her local experience and pragmatic approach make her an indispensable member of the team.’

Key clients

Dukhan Bank QPSC

Lesha Bank LLC

QPay International LLC

M Cubed for Oil & Gas Services

QInvest LLC

Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN)

Qatar National Bank Q.P.S.C. (QNB Group)

The Commercial Bank of Qatar (Q.S.C.)

Qatar Navigation QSC (Milaha)

Work highlights

  • Advised Dukhan Bank QPSC on the bank’s successful direct listing on the main market of the QSE.
  • Advised Lesha Bank on the financing of a Qatari consortium of investors in connection with the acquisition of a 10.8% stake in Ennismore, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing lifestyle hospitality companies owned by Accor.
  • Advised leading fintech company in Qatar, QPay International, on its award-winning M&A transaction whereby the company was acquired by Qatar Islamic Bank, one of the leading local banks.

Qatar > Projects, real estate and construction Tier 2

Front-end projects work is the hallmark of the team at K&L Gates in Doha, which is led by PPP specialist Paweł Piotrowski. Piotrowski, praised as ‘knowledgeable and collaborative‘, advises on project finance; construction and infrastructure matters, as well as public procurement, both in Qatar and across the region. Clients range from high-profile individuals to government ministries, and large real estate developers. The growing team gained Joelle Salame from Dentons in January 2023, and Christopher Abraham in July 2023 from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.

Practice head(s):

Paweł Piotrowski

Other key lawyers:

Joelle Salame; Christopher Abraham

Testimonials

‘K&L gates provide an exceptional personal service and endeavor to communicate in a way that benefits the company, making timely decisions on matters of legal importance. They prefer a collaborative approach whilst remaining aware of the needs of the client.’

‘Pawel Piotrowski has performed beyond expectations and provided solid advice and service backed up by a strong team of associates.’

‘Pawel Piotrowski and Joelle Salame are both responsive, hands-on, and straight to the point.’

‘Very good knowledge of the local market but their main differentiator is the international experience that they bring compared to others. Setting up international firms in Qatar is very complex and we found K&L to be the best-suited to drive an international corporation set-up in Qatar.’

‘This is an excellent international firm for local firms to collaborate with. They have deep expertise in certain sectors and are generous in sharing knowledge. We have been successful in winning major mandates alongside them.’

‘Pawel Piotrowski is very knowledgeable, and collaborative. It is a pleasure to work with him and clients like his approach.’

‘Cannot highlight sufficiently the first-class responsiveness coupled with deep understanding, and above all pragmatic advice provided in response to complex issues. The team fully takes account all commercial attributes and doesn’t simply take a theoretical legal viewpoint.’

‘Pawel Piotrowski is highly professional, clear and pragmatic, a solution finder, and responsive.’

Key clients

Iberdrola QSTP LLC

Barwa Real Estate

Elemental S.A.

MCubed for Oil & Gas Services

Work highlights

  • Continuing to advise Iberdrola as their primary outside counsel for Qatar.
  • Continued to advise Barwa on a PPP project with the Qatar Ministry of Education to design, build, finance, and maintain eight public schools.
  • Retained by Elemental S.A., a Chilean architectural firm, in relation to their various contracts for design of a new museum for the State of Qatar named ‘Art Mill’.

Qatar > Dispute resolution Tier 3

The dispute resolution team at K&L Gates is made up of ‘extremely talented lawyers‘, offering a ‘depth of capability at all levels‘. Its arbitration capabilities are particularly praised, with sector expertise across construction and engineering, oil and gas, and banking and finance matters. Team head Matthew Walker works across Doha and London, while Burak Eryiğit is noted for his ‘extraordinary‘ attention-to-detail.

Practice head(s):

Matthew Walker

Other key lawyers:

Burak Erygit

Testimonials

‘K&L Gates have a strong and diversified arbitration team that has a proven record in the arbitration field. they have handled complex cases with efficiency, using the latest technology. They are very organised and efficient.’

‘Burak Erygit’s focus and attention-to-detail is extraordinary. His analysis of contractual matters and ability to see issues which were previously not apparent is particularly notable. Burak has relentless focus and work ethic, and ensures the strongest possible position is advanced in pleadings. Burak is a pleasure to work with and I look forward to working with him again.’

‘The members of the team are individually good performers and together highly efficient. They stand-out in the market and maintained the quality of their work and their growth. Their leader Matthew Walker is very good lawyer and team leader with high ethics.’

‘K&L Gates’ has a team of extremely talented lawyers and depth of capability at all levels. Their attention-to-detail and commitment to develop the strongest possible case is clearly evident – and they do so in an affable and exceptionally professional manner.’

‘Matthew Walker’s knowledge of construction law is exceptional and highly commendable. He is able to quickly grasp complex and technical construction issues and develop these into compelling arguments in support of our case. Furthermore, Matthew is a true gentleman and a pleasure to work alongside.’

Key clients

QFC Employment Standards Office

Work highlights

  • Acting as counsel to the QFC Employment Standards Office in respect of two related appeals from the decision of the Commissioner of the QFC ESO in respect of unlawful deductions of salary from two employees.

K&L Gates > Firm Profile

K&L Gates is an integrated, international law firm with more than 45 offices located on five continents. Through our global network of offices and practice areas, we assist our clients with their most complex issues, offering local market knowledge and access to both national and international capabilities.

The Doha office, established in 2011, presents solutions to clients’ most complex legal challenges in the Middle East, as well as supports the legal needs of regional clients abroad. Lawyers in our Doha office work across the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and beyond, on mandates for Qatari, regional, and international clients. We provide a full-service offering from our office, making us the leading law firm in Qatar. Our team has a bilingual offering and is able to seamlessly advise clients across both English and Arabic languages (as well as many more).

Our Doha office advises on all aspects of corporate, commercial, and banking activities in the state of Qatar and within the Gulf. We act for construction and infrastructure sector clients on legal issues at every stage of the construction process, from procurement and tendering; through contract drafting; to arbitration, litigation, and alternative dispute resolution. We assist on engineering, procurement, and construction contracts, as well as public procurement matters. We also have many years of experience advising on Islamic finance and investment funds, regulatory (including financial services regulatory), real estate, employment and labor law, and intellectual property matters.

Areas of practice
Finance and Islamic finance: Our Doha-based banking and finance practice lawyers handle our clients’ most important, strategic transactions, regulatory issues, and operational matters. We represent lenders, borrowers, servicers, trustees, and other participants in an array of financing transactions, including some of the most complex regional workouts involving complicated cross-border and Shari’ah issues.

Our Doha office is one of the centers of excellence for our global Islamic Finance group. Our Doha team advises on the full range of Shari’ah-compliant structures and transactions within Qatar and across the globe, including Turkey, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Our lawyers have vast experience assisting clients in navigating the regulatory, policy, and business issues surrounding the fintech space. We have a progressive approach to fintech, which means we are able to provide our clients with legal advice that is in line with the cutting-edge advancements typically seen in the industry.

Corporate: Members of our Qatar-based corporate and commercial practice provide clients with a full range of legal services, from general business planning to highly specialized and business-critical matters. We serve as trusted advisors to Fortune Global 500, middle market, and emerging businesses, as well as their investors and their boards, and are at the forefront of the strategic, commercial, and governance issues affecting these clients across all of our key industries. We support our clients on the full life cycle of corporate work for high-value critical and routine issues. Our lawyers have extensive experience advising on all aspects of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions transactions, private equity, venture capital, general corporate, licensing and restructuring matters, and commercial contracts.

Regulatory, financial regulatory, and compliance: Our regulatory practice is known for providing top-tier advice to Middle East and Levant region government entities and regulators on reviews of legislation and the drafting of new legislative frameworks. In the Gulf Cooperation Council, our lawyers have advised ministries and central banks on policy-making issues in connection with foreign direct investments. We also advise a range of private sector clients facing regulatory compliance with local laws and regulations, governance, and risk management matters. K&L Gates is one of very few firms that have the expertise to advise on the full risk spectrum, from the detail of compliance with technical requirements under regulatory and industry body rules, through to investigations and, in extreme cases, to criminal liability.

We offer an in-depth understanding of Qatar law, and our lawyers have considerable expertise in a range of regulatory-related services, including complex overview of regulatory and compliance requirements affecting corporate transactions, financial services regulation, business establishment licensing, listing rules, competition, takeover rules, internal policies, standards, and procedures.

Litigation and dispute resolution: Litigation and dispute resolution team members routinely carry out advocacy in arbitration and the Qatar Financial Centre Courts, delivering our clients a full-service dispute resolution offering. They regularly advise local and international clients on litigation, arbitration, mediation, and, in particular, dispute avoidance and alternative dispute resolution, while being also known for their significant experience in complex construction disputes.

We have an impressive track record of cases in the local Qatari courts, in which we work closely alongside leading local counsel as our clients’ advocates. Our litigation and dispute resolution partners in the region often sit as arbitrators managing cases in all major arbitral forums.

Energy, infrastructure, and resources (EIR): Lawyers in our Doha EIR practice work for some of the leading clients in the infrastructure and public-private partnership (PPP) space, putting forward their commercial experience, market knowledge, technical and regulatory experience, and project management skills. Their knowledge and understanding covers all aspects of a project’s life cycle, from the early stages of finance, development, and design, through implementation, construction, and closeout. Our EIR legal practitioners have extensive experience advising on projects across a wide range of sectors, including renewables, oil and gas, petrochemicals, water and waste, energy storage, network and rail, mining, airports, telecommunications, and many others.

We take pride in having one of the few specialist PPP lawyers operating in the Middle East, and consider our Doha office to be a true market leader when it comes to advising clients on front-end construction and infrastructure project tendering, contract drafting, and financing. Our clients include major private players in the utilities and construction market, major real estate developers, infrastructure funds, state entities and companies owned by the state, project funders, private energy companies, consultants, and leading family offices (including advising members of the royal family).

Asset management and investment funds (AMIF): Our AMIF practice in Doha is a member of the world’s largest and most experienced investment management legal teams in the world. Our AMIF lawyers represent a broad array of participants in the investment industry, including institutional investors (family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, etc.), regulated funds (exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, etc.), alternative funds (private equity funds, hedge funds, etc.), and intermediaries (investment managers, banks, etc.), offering our clients a full range of services, including structuring, regulation, advisory, marketing and offering, litigation and enforcement, fundraising, and operations.

We work with a large number and wide range of small, medium-sized, and boutique managers, as well as funds, investment management, and professional investor communities. We also represent many institutional investors in Qatar and across the wider Middle East in connection with their fund investments.

Real estate: With expansive knowledge regarding key real estate and infrastructure issues associated with large-scale developments, our Doha-based real estate practice members are highly skilled in producing effective, practical documents that serve our real estate sector clients’ needs, and are consistent with international best practices. We deliver strategic advice on large and complex real estate matters spanning multiple Middle East jurisdictions, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Our work encompasses advising on acquisitions, developments, construction (contentious and non-contentious), planning, environmental, tax structures, transactions investment, and project financing within the real estate sector. Our real estate team assists clients with property management, leasing, servicing, and outsourcing matters, and handles enterprisewide leasing programs for our clients. We also work alongside our litigation and dispute resolution, and international arbitration practices, which have extensive experience in complex multiparty disputes and arbitrations pursuant to the rules of all the major arbitration institutions.

Intellectual property: Our intellectual property (IP) capability in Doha is a part of the global full-service IP practice. We work on a wide range of commercial, regulatory, data protection, privacy and security, technology transaction, and intellectual property matters, particularly in the health care, technology, retail, luxury, consumer products, and sports sectors. Our global practice has a market reputation for trademark, design, copyright, and licensing, with expertise in cross-border counselling, registration, clearance, portfolio management, licensing, enforcement (opposition and cancellation proceedings), and disputes. Our IP lawyers seamlessly assist our clients in protecting and enforcing patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other rights to protect their IP as valuable business assets. We also advise on licensing and transactions, as well as IP due diligence.

Labor, employment, and workplace safety: We provide a one-stop, full-service labor and employment law practice in both contentious and non-contentious matters in the MENA region. We advise a wide range of private and public employers, from multinational companies with thousands of employees in numerous locations to companies with one site and relatively few employees. Our experience includes advising on compliance with the local employment regime, employment contracts, termination procedures, pension obligations, gratuity payments, and redundancy procedures. We also represent clients on contentious claims relating to breach of restrictive covenants, arbitrary dismissal, discrimination, and more.

Doha senior partner: Amjad Hussain

Offices
Europe: Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Munich, Paris
Middle East: Doha, Dubai
United States: Austin, Boston, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville,
New York, Newark, Orange County, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, Wilmington
South America: Sao Paulo
Asia: Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo
Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney.