International law firm Trowers & Hamlins recently ended its exclusive alliance with the Saudi Arabian Feras Alshawaf Law Firm following the departure of its last lawyer in Riyadh. Abbas Khan, who was working as an associate at Trowers & Hamlins, recently defected to the Feras Alshawaf Law Firm where he was named a partner.
“Abbas Khan recently joined Feras Alshawaf after we were unable to redeploy another partner to Riyadh,” Trowers & Hamlins said in a statement. “He left the firm on a positive note, and we are still working together on a number of projects.”
The firm added that it has not abandoned the Saudi Arabian market, and continues to work with clients interested in signing deals within the kingdom. In fact, the firm is continuing with an informal relationship with Feras Alshawaf despite the departure of its associate.
Trowers and Feras Alshawaf had an exclusive relationship between them to help the international law firm retain a presence in Saudi Arabia. The mandate is that international law firms practicing in Saudi Arabia must tie up with a local law firm to operate within the kingdom.
Trowers shut down its Jeddah office in May 2011, less than a year after it opened its doors. The firm also lost its senior corporate partner Paul Fitzgerald to Fulbright & Jaworski late last year, leaving Khan as the sole Trowers attorney in the country.
“It is not easy to retain people in Saudi, and we are holding discussions on how to recruit the right people and deploy them effectively,” the firm said in the statement. ALB
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