“The two law firms have endorsed an agreement that will enable them to cooperate and offer a broad range of legal services to clients in this country and abroad,” Konstantin Mettenheimer, Freshfields’ senior partner, said on Wednesday.
“This association will prove beneficial to clients of both firms, and will strengthen our law team and our practice on all fronts,” said Mettenheimer, who is currently visiting Saudi Arabia.
“We will be working together in the commercial field, in a broader sense, covering many sectors like infrastructure, energy, corporate banking,” he added.
He said Freshfields would deploy some prominent lawyers in the Kingdom including Tobias Muller-Deku, a partner at the firm since 1999.
He pointed out that Muller-Deku, who is already in Riyadh, has considerable emerging markets experience and will manage the continued growth of the firm’s Saudi finance and securities practice as well as advising on corporate matters.
Mettenheimer, who has been advising numerous international companies on mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and financing issues, said the son of Sheikh Salah Al-Hejailan (founder and principal of LFSH), Fares Al-Hejailan, has been a key member of the Freshfields Riyadh team.
He pointed out that Fares is one of only a few dual-qualified English and Saudi lawyers practicing in the Kingdom.
Speaking on the occasion, Salah Al-Hejailan said: “The association strengthens the long-standing professional and personal relationships formed between our law firms over many years.”
The combination of expertise and the “global reach” of Freshfields, together with the leading local and regional experience of LFSH, provides a strong platform and support for our clients conducting business in and from Saudi Arabia, particularly in the fields of infrastructure and energy projects as well as banking, finance and dispute resolution, he added.
“Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia has boomed over the last decade and the private sector now accounts for a considerable share of what used to be a largely oil-based economy,” said Tobias.
He said that the growth of foreign investment has created massive demand for quality legal services that combine established local knowledge with multi-jurisdictional capabilities. Freshfields’ association with LFSH presents an attractive proposition for companies looking to exploit opportunities in this fast emerging market, he added.
LFSH, established in Riyadh in 1967, offers a broad range of legal services to multinational firms. LFSH is the largest law firm in Saudi Arabia and is regarded as the preeminent law firm in the region. The firm is staffed with five Western attorneys admitted to practice law in the US and the UK, as well as 15 local attorneys, including preeminent professors of law from various countries in the Middle East.
Freshfields, on the other hand, is a leader among international law firms, providing business law advice throughout Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East.
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