About

Najwa Attiga, a seasoned international corporate attorney, was headhunted by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council to become its first general counsel in 2008, where she established and managed the legal department reporting to the managing director. In 2016, Attiga moved to the only federal level sovereign wealth fund in the UAE Emirates Investment Authority (EIA), where she operates as general counsel, head of internal compliance, and secretary of the board. Attiga proudly states that her biggest career achievement to date occurred while with Abu Dhabi Investment Council, where she ‘led a key initiative with the US Treasury and the IRS over a period of three years which resulted in a significant breakthrough in the tax rules that apply to foreign governments and sovereign wealth funds investing in the US’. She explains, ‘I am referring here to the Proposed Regulations under Section 892 of the US tax code, which represented a significant step towards providing relief for sovereign wealth funds to preserve their eligibility for preferential tax treatment under Section 892 while reducing the cost and complexity associated with structuring investments in the US’. At EIA, Attiga has been responsible for the creation of a first class legal department. ‘Since joining, I have successfully set up a solid legal function reporting to the CEO. I developed a new investment process incorporating all the various commercial, legal, tax and operational aspects of assessing an investment’, she says. ‘To enable the legal department to carry out its broad mandate and in order to support EIA’s investment and non-investment operations as well as its strategic assets, I successfully developed various work tools and processes in addition to hiring qualified lawyers, a paralegal and a corporate secretary in the legal team’. Her extra-curricular activity has also been remarkable. ‘In addition to my professional work, one accomplishment I am very proud of is being the co-founder of the Women Lawyers Group Middle East, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting women in the legal profession in the Middle East’, Attiga adds, emphasising her altruistic commitment towards advancing the careers, interests and development of other aspiring female lawyers in the Middle East.