Nabeel Al-Mansour is the executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at the world’s largest oil producer Saudi Aramco. In this interview, he discusses the challenges in navigating a rapidly transforming Saudi Arabian economy, managing a large team across multiple jurisdictions and the changes to legal engagement as the Kingdom opens its doors to international law firms.
ALB: How has the role and significance of an in-house counsel changed in the Middle East in recent years?
Nabeel Al-Mansour: I believe that the role of in-house counsel has increasingly become more important in the region, particularly in the Kingdom where we have seen significant developments in the judicial and regulatory environment take place in recent years. With the introduction of increasingly specialised regulations, the private sector—which plays a major role in the Kingdom's Vision 2030—had to significantly bolster its in-house capabilities. Large companies had to develop sophisticated legal departments staffed with counsel who are both specialised and versed in the business.
To some extent, Aramco's legal organisation has been ahead of the game: In the late 2000s, we transformed our team of twenty generalist lawyers to a fully functioning organisation rivalling the biggest law firms in the region. Today, our organisation is comprised of well-trained counsel in increasingly specialised disciplines, including intellectual property, tax, and project development and finance.
ALB: What is your approach to managing a team of over 200 lawyers across multiple jurisdictions?
Al-Mansour: This is something that we have been working on as Aramco's global business footprint continues to expand into new jurisdictions through its expanding network of affiliates. This expansion has increased the demand on legal services, and this demand is met, primarily, by the legal organisation here in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia as well as those of our affiliates in Asia, Europe, and the Americas—each supported by leading international law firms with worldwide expertise.
To ensure that our high-quality services are delivered consistently and efficiently across borderlines, we have rolled out a global legal service delivery model a few years ago. Through this model, we proactively manage global legal risks by establishing communication channels with legal teams at our affiliates, and monitor regulatory developments in the jurisdictions that become increasingly relevant to our business. This model also enables our counsel throughout the group to collaborate and align on our common objective of delivering high-quality legal services.
ALB: What has been your experience with the opening of Saudi Arabia’s legal market, in terms of costs, efficiency and availability of options for external counsel?
Al-Mansour: The recent opening of the legal market in the Kingdom to international law firms is a welcome development. It should improve the ways in which law firms interact with and serve in-house legal organisations in our region. I believe that law firms will provide more specialised, jurisdiction-specific expertise which complements the resources that are available in-house. I also expect that law firms will leverage their local experiences to advise on nuances in regulatory expectations that are otherwise not readily apparent to companies that are new entrants to the Kingdom.
The increased availability of international law firms and competition among them have led to a noticeable improvement in engagement. Locally present law firms are expected to become more closely engaged with in-house legal organisations, and hence more effective and familiar with the business. This will likely position them to be better able to proactively provide a broader catalog of legal services that take holistic account of the opportunities that are pursued by the business and the risks attendant with those opportunities.
ALB: As a member of Aramco’s executive leadership team, how do you ensure that the legal function is closely integrated into the company’s strategic decision-making process?
Al-Mansour: The legal organisation's integration into Aramco's strategic decision-making process is deliberate and by design. At the leadership level, the GC is a permanent member of the top corporate committees responsible for the group's strategy, investment, procurement, and other decision-making. This integration is then propagated throughout the legal organisation, with our corporate and commercial practices structured to mirror the organisational structure of the company.
The perfect mix of our workforce also plays a role: About fifty percent of our lawyers are expats with extensive specialised expertise. The other fifty percent are internationally licensed Saudi lawyers who, after having work experience at other organisations in the Company, were uniquely trained and educated at top universities. The combination provides for diverse and well-rounded teams with institutional knowledge that is conducive to increased engagement and closer relationships with internal clients.
