Group Chief Legal Officer | Petromin Corporation
Mohammed Jamil
Group Chief Legal Officer | Petromin Corporation
Career Biography
Mohammed Jamil is a British national and a UK-qualified Solicitor (non-practicing) with over 20 years of diverse legal and commercial experience. He currently serves as the Group General Counsel at Petromin, where he leads the legal function across a broad international footprint, including operations in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Morocco.
Prior to joining Petromin, Jamil held senior legal and management roles in several leading organizations such as Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Kuwait Finance House, TRW Automotive, Wilkes Partnership, and Gowling WLG. His international career spans multiple jurisdictions, including England, Germany, the Isle of Man, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, providing him with a well-rounded global legal perspective.
In his current role, Jamil is not only a trusted legal advisor, but also a strategic partner to the Group CEO and vertical business leaders. He offers integrated strategic, commercial, and legal counsel, actively supporting the implementation of major projects across the group. Additionally, he leads the Grievance and Investigations Committee, overseeing all internal investigations and holding review and signing authority. As an authorised signatory on financial transactions, he plays a key governance role in ensuring legal and regulatory compliance across Petromin’ s operations.
Team size: 8 – UAE, India and KSA
What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?
I am passionate about the enhancement of practical legal training for law graduates across MENA. While legal education in the region has made important strides in delivering a solid foundation in legal theory, more can be done to prepare students for the day-to-day realities of legal practice.
In particular, emerging legal challenges such as commercial disputes, international arbitration, legal tech advancements, and evolving regulatory frameworks require professionals who are not only well-versed in law but are also adept at applying legal concepts in practical, real-life scenarios. The absence of dedicated, practical legal training programs leads to inefficiencies, increases in client dissatisfaction, and a slower adaptation to international legal standards.
Hence a region-specific Legal Practice Course (LPC) – a structured, post-graduate program that focuses on equipping graduates with practical skills and professional readiness. While models such as the UK’s LPC or SQE, or the U.S. bar-prep system, offer some inspiration, the Middle East needs a course designed for its unique legal, cultural, and commercial realities.
As such, I am collaborating with globally renowned legal training institute, leading global and regional law firms, leading local practitioners and seeking a university to develop such a course, which in my view would add significantly to the legal profession for decades to come.
Are the effects of AI on the legal world overplayed, or underplayed?
The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in the legal profession is currently being understood, there are many benefits of AI, however the legal profession remains very cautious in its approach, there are ethical, data privacy, contextualisation of advice and accuracy concerns as technology evolves some of these concerns should reduce in due course. Given that legal work involves large volumes of data, research, processing and documentation. AI tools will certainly assist with efficiencies, resource optimisation and cost reduction.
As technology develops AI will not be seen as a threat, indeed another tool to augment the services, allow lawyers to carry out greater volume and quality of work with AI tools, and free them to add greater value. Ultimately, AI will not replace lawyers — but those who embrace it will have a significant advantage in a changing legal landscape.
As a company we have embraced AI, we are developing our own AI tools, relevant to our business, to look at drafting claims and defense in litigation, to carry out contract reviews, in-house developed solutions ensure that we address data privacy concerns, have tailored solutions to our specific issues.
Awards and recognitions:
