White & Case has inked a tie-up with the Riyadh arm of Gide Loyrette Nouel in a renewed push to strengthen its Saudi practice after losing its Saudi sponsor to Latham & Watkins earlier this year.
Gide Loyrette Nouel announced its intentions to close its Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Dubai offices last week due to a drop off in transaction levels and increased competition from English law firms. According to the firm’s managing partner Pierre Raul-Duval, the shrinking pie of work available in the Middle East had created growing uncertainty on the firm’s investment returns and had triggered the decision to cease operations with immediate effect.
Gide Loyrette Nouel’s office closures are not limited to the Middle East. The firm will also close its Prague office and wind down its Belgrade operations progressively over the next 12 months.
The new alliance forged between White & Case and the Riyadh office will operate under the name Dr Waleed N Al-Nuwaiser in association with White & Case, and will be headed by ex-Gide corporate and commercial partner Waleed Al-Nuwaiser.
A team of seven lawyers from the old Gide office will join two additional hires – general counsel for Babcock & Brown, Margaret Cole, and the former Middle East head of Lovells, Shibeer Ahmed, who has joined from the Dubai international project finance practice of Baker Botts.
White & Case suffered a series of departures from the region earlier this year after it was targeted by US rival Latham & Watkins. Latham & Watkins recruited a total of 13 partners from White & Case’s London and Middle East offices. Departures included partner Christopher Langdon, Abu Dhabi-based Nick Collins and Riyadh office head Mohammed Al-Sheikh, who was White & Case’s Saudi sponsor until January 2010.
Al-Sheikh signed on with Latham & Watkins in April 2010.ALB
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