Covington & Burling’s Middle East alliance firm Institution Quaraysh for Law & Policy (iQ) prepares to strengthen its position by launching offices in Riyadh and King Abdullah Economic City.

As the only top-tier legal service provider with Gulf and international law practices, the two new offices will join iQ’s preexisting bases in Doha, Jeddah and London.

Covington’s M.E. co-head Bruce Wilson will be involved in the new offices and comments that the company will focusing on the new area of legal infrastructure and policy work. Malik Dahlan, the Principal and Chief Lawyer of iQ comments, “We are pioneering in the area of promoting the rule of law and good governance in the Region through our focus on regulatory and legal infrastructure projects. The whole region is witnessing a boom on that front. The need for a “trusted legal adviser” to support on such complicated legal questions while maintaining the Region’s cultural specificity and integrity is going to define, not only institutions  but also who we are as lawyers.”
King Abdullah Economic City is a 168 million sq m project located off the Red Sea, north of Saudi Arabia. Revealed in 2005, the city acts as a catalyst to attract foreign investment, global trade, commerce and create employment opportunities for its youthful population.

Covington and iQ formed alliance in November 2008 to enable the firms to work cooperatively to provide high quality legal services to clients in the Middle East.

Covington has over 800 lawyers practicing in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington.ALB