Team size: 8

Career Biography

Khalid Khan is Head of Legal at Seddiqi Holding. Among other things, it owns Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the luxury watch and jewellery distributor.

Khan has over two decades of legal experience across the UK and the Middle East. This includes private practice roles at Pinsent Masons, Reed Smith Richards Butler, and Dentons; and as Head of Legal for leading Middle Eastern multinational and family-owned businesses (such as MH Alshaya Co (Kuwait), GEMS Education (UAE), Gulf Investment Corporation (Kuwait), and The Zubair Corporation (Oman)).

He is an English qualified solicitor. He was previously a Parliamentary Assistant at the House of Commons for a former UK Secretary of State and has worked at the European Commission in Brussels.

He has won a number of awards, including Middle East General Counsel of the Year (ACC/Legal Week); Innovative In-House Team of the Year (Asian Legal Business/The Brief Middle East Legal Awards); and has been listed in the Legal 500’s GC Powerlist: Middle East.

What are the key projects that you have been involved in over the past 12 months?

Acquiring distribution rights to ON (fast-growing publicy listed Swiss sports shoe brand, part owned by Roger Federer, competing with Adidas, Puma, Nike, among others.

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?

We live in volatile and uncertain times, which is the new normal. A legal team that is not advising on and executing broader strategies of the business is not adding value and risks becoming irrelevant.

What do you think are the most important attributes for a modern in-house counsel to possess?

The ability to listen, to reflect and to be curious, all the time.

How can general counsel foster a corporate culture that supports ESG principles and compliance across all levels of the organisation?

To eschew virtue-signalling and to instead reflect on why ESG is and always has been good business and has resulted in out-performance for centuries.

How do you prioritise diversity and inclusion within your legal department, and what initiatives have you implemented to foster a more inclusive work environment?

Around 87% of our legal team is female, not because of quotas, but because they are the best candidates we could fine. The team comes from the UK, Finland, Sudan, Nigeria, Lebanon, the US, Bahrain and Ukraine.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on, of which you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful?

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