About

An Islamic banking specialist, based on both academic attainment in the subject and real-world application of these principles at a senior level, Omar Al-Mudarra is one of the leading financial legal specialists operating in Saudi Arabia. His experience includes spells in the public sector, with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Committee for the Settlement of Banking Disputes), and in private practice as a senior lawyer at a leading law firm in Saudi Arabia. This culminated in him joining Samba Financial group, one of the premier banking institutions in the country, in July 2011 as head of legal for its investment arm, Samba Capital, where he was responsible for the legal function of investment banking activities. His success and achievements at Samba Capital earned him a promotion to the position of general manager/head of legal at group level for Samba. Al-Mudarra describes how active the role of a senior in-house lawyer can be. ‘It is a widely perceived notion’, he explains, ‘that the in-house lawyer has only one client, which is his organisation, but this is hardly the case because each individual department in the organisation is effectively a client’. The company favours a policy of constant technological improvement in both its service and internal operation, and Al-Mudarra is playing a significant role in the adoption and management of the implantation of new and high-tech improvements to internal processes: ‘Technology has swept across all fields, and law is no exception. The question is not whether Technology will replace most of the Lawyer’s work, but whether we see this as a threat or an opportunity’, Al-Mudarra advises.