Team size: Five

Jurisdictions your role covers: Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, KSA

What are the major cases or transactions you have been involved in recently?

Recently, my focus has been heavily concentrated on advising the company across its significant portfolio of mega-projects in the GCC region, specifically in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain (overall portfolio equivalent to USD$15+ bn.).

My involvement primarily revolves around the strategic development and ongoing operations of our flagship Avenues Mall projects in these markets. This encompasses a broad spectrum of advisory work, from structuring complex investment and operational agreements with various stakeholders to ensuring regulatory compliance in each jurisdiction.

Furthermore, I have been deeply engaged in providing guidance for our sister companies within the retail, hospitality and entertainment sectors. This includes navigating the legal and commercial intricacies of new market entries, optimising existing operational frameworks, and advising on strategic partnerships that drive growth and enhance the overall value proposition of our integrated developments.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As the head of the legal department, my approach to managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises is proactive, integrated, and deeply aligned with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience. My role shifts from purely reactive problem-solving to strategic risk navigation and value preservation.

The internal policy of the company is to develop a document (business impact analysis) for evaluating different mitigation/recovery options and decide the appropriate strategy/strategies to be adopted, which will be used to prepare the business continuity plan.

The whole exercise is based on the identification of all processes within the legal department of Mabanee and then assigning a level of importance to each business process. This is considered as the primary tool for gathering this information and assigning criticality, recovery time objectives, resource requirements, dependencies, vital records and is therefore part of the basic foundation of business continuity. Mabanee intends to remain sufficiently flexible to accommodate new scenarios as they arise. To maintain effectiveness of the BIA process it is important that BIA activity is carried at least once a year or whenever changes to the resources occur whichever is earlier.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

The decision to utilise external legal services versus handling matters in-house is a strategic one, constantly balancing efficiency, expertise, cost, and risk. We are always aiming for a hybrid model that maximises value for our complex operations across Kuwait, KSA, and Bahrain. My strategy is to bring on board qualified and experienced team members that allow me to lead the legal department with efficiency and professionalism.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?

Staying ahead of technological advancements is not just about efficiency, it’s the strategic imperative for ensuring our organisation’s resilience and competitive edge, especially with our dynamic mega-projects like The Avenues Mall.

In my humble opinion, I see several emerging technologies having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future: generative artificial intelligence, advanced legal analytics, blockchain and smart contracts, hyper automation and robotic process automation.

The continuous learning mechanism is one of the main tools to stay updated on any development. The challenge is to use the above tools not as a replacement for human legal professionals, but as an incredibly powerful helping tool, an augmentation that enhances our capabilities, efficiency, and strategic impact.