Riyadh-mission ticket
International law firms in Saudi Arabia are turning their attention to home-grown female lawyers in a bid to gain access to new clients
In Brief
Women who want to practise law in Saudi Arabia face numerous hurdles, not least they are not permitted to argue a case in court. But they can now study law at university in Saudi and a growing number of international firms in the territory are choosing to access the country’s new pool of home-grown talent.
It was only five years ago that Prince Sultan University in Riyadh introduced Saudi Arabia’s first law degree for women. Before that women who wanted a legal education could study abroad but there was no infrastructure to nurture talent at home. Today, there are seven colleges and universities in Saudi Arabia that offer women the chance to study law and, as the country’s second batch of graduates emerge, international firms in Saudi Arabia are beginning to take notice.
The situation for female lawyers in Saudi Arabia is complicated and while they are by no means on an equal footing with men, progress is on the horizon. Women can practise law as representatives and give legal advice to clients but they are not permitted to argue in court – in fact, they may not even be allowed to enter a court without a male guardian present. The country’s justice minister, Mohammed al-Issa, has begun to make concessions in that respect, however. In February 2010, he said his department was drafting legislation that would allow women to represent other women in family law cases and matters concerning women’s personal status, but not in general matters.
Even with the changes women will still not be able to open their own practice in Saudi Arabia and laws state that men and women must be physically segregated at work. This creates another hurdle in that any firm that wants to take on women must first create separate offices.
But a growing group of international firms in Saudi are choosing to jump through the necessary hoops to access the country’s new pool of home-grown talent as well as those who have pursued studies abroad.
“We’ve just completed the reconstruction of our Riyadh office to accommodate women and we’re starting to recruit experienced female lawyers,” says Robert Jordan, Baker Botts’ Middle East head.
Likewise, Squire Sanders’ Middle East and North Africa co-ordinating partner Kevin Connor told The Lawyer that his firm had taken space across the hall from their offices to build a women’s section.
“It’s the second year that there have been female law graduates coming out of universities and a few firms are opening women sections,” says Connor. “We’ve also begun interviewing women to join us as associates.”
Clifford Chance, which moved offices in Riyadh at the end of June, also built in extra space to accommodate female lawyers. A partner at the firm says this was done for international lawyers visiting the office rather than for new recruits, but the firm does not rule anything out in the future.
A number of the international firms in Saudi, such as DLA Piper and King & Spalding (which are both based on the 20th floor of Riyadh’s Kingdom Tower and so are exempt from the rule about having separate entrances for women) have also agreed with deans of universities that run the women’s law degrees to take on two students for a six-month placement every year. DLA’s Saudi office, in fact, has employed female lawyers for more than two years, according to regional managing partner Abdul Aziz Al-Yaqout.
And while most of the managing partners The Lawyer spoke with said that they believed training Saudi’s next generation of lawyers – both male and female – was to be encouraged as part of their corporate social responsibility and in line with their firm’s goals for equality, there is also a commercial reason for firms promoting the cause of female lawyers.
“We’re not just trying to be altruistic, here,” says Squire Sanders’ Connor. “Fifty per cent of the wealth in Saudi is controlled by women. A massive amount of power resides with women but they don’t have access to lawyers they are comfortable with. We think it would be great to have senior Saudi lawyers because that would grant us access to clients that we don’t have access to now.”
Saudi Arabia in the news
19 June 2012: Allen & Overy (A&O) has been mulling its future in Saudi Arabia as its contract with local sponsor Abdulaziz AlGasim expired. A&O’s association with the Riyadh firm began in 2007 as part of a five-year deal. The two firms have now entered into an automatic one-year rollover period. An A&O spokesman said the firm was now speaking with AlGasim about whether to continue the association but that no timeline has been put on the two parties reaching an agreement.
14 June 2012: Failed firm Dewey & LeBoeuf’s Riyadh practice joined US firm Patton Boggs to set up an affiliate office for the US firm, consisting of one partner and four associates. Former Dewey partner Khalid Al-Thebity, whose practice spans corporate, commercial, finance, real estate and Saudi-related litigation and arbitration, will lead the office.
23 Feburary 2012: Trowers & Hamlins was forced to terminate its exclusive alliance in Riyadh after its last associate in the city jumped ship to the firm’s local ally. Trowers’ exclusive tie-up with Feras Alshawaf Law Firm was dependent on the former having at least one employee in the country and now that employee has resigned, the formal alliance has come to an end. According to Mutawi, the associate, Abbas Khan, was frustrated at Trowers’ failure to redeploy another partner to Riyadh.
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Readers' comments (19)
Anonymouse | 23-Jul-2012 11:06 am
Another meaningless smoke and mirrors article about Saudi Arabia.
There are no available law licenses for Saudi female law graduates and so career prospects at the moment within the Kingdom are non-existant. While it is nice to have a female graduate in the office, they cannot attend at the Ministries, they cannot attend at the courts, and they have the usual limited legal and research skills as male Saudi graduates (who can, in time, obtain a law licence and go on to have a career as a lawyer).
So we take the female graduates in for a year or two, make the right corporate responsibility noises, and spend time and money on training. The female graduates (who are not lawyers because they cannot get a licence) realise they are going nowhere in their careers and they leave to study overseas or because they get married to Saudi men who do not want their wives to be mixing with male lawyers, especially western male lawyers.
Come back in 20 years and by then you may have something to write about.
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Anonymous | 23-Jul-2012 2:07 pm
This is quite old news A&O Riyadh has been employing female trainees and interns for over a year now. In fact informed sources rate them far higher in terms of work ethics than many male counterparts.
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Anonymouse | 24-Jul-2012 8:43 am
@2:07pm
But the point is that they are not lawyers and cannot be lawyers until the authorities allow female law graduates to obtain a law licence.
Until then they are just back-room staff who will move on sooner rather than later.
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Anonymous | 24-Jul-2012 2:17 pm
@8.43am Not sure what the law licence actually adds apart from the ability to sell it to a western firm seeking an association!
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Anonymouse | 25-Jul-2012 9:11 am
@2:17pm
If you don't know the difference between being a licensed lawyer capable of acting for a client and representing that client before courts and authorities and being a back-room researcher and general dogs-body then I wonder why you think you are qualified to make any comment at all.
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Anonymous | 25-Jul-2012 6:27 pm
@11:06am - Completely barbaric to say the female Saudi lawyers leave becuase their husbands don't allow them to work with Western lawyers. 99% of these female lawyers are in these positions because they are from progressive and forward-thinking families/social circles (of which there are many in Saudi cities). Many female lawyers in Saudi also go onto in-house counsel roles where they can progress without a licence.
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Anonymous | 25-Jul-2012 6:31 pm
Many Saudi female lawyers also move on to in-house counsel positions. That allows them to progress without a licence to practice.
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Anonymouse | 26-Jul-2012 12:10 pm
Oh please excuse me for being barbaric, but it doesn't matter how progressive your family is if your husband has issues with his wife interacting with other males. I have yet to meet any of the wives of any of the Saudis I have worked with during my time in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps I just work with non-progressive Saudi men.
Also, after 4 years working in Saudi Arabia I have yet to come across a Saudi female in-house counsel. Can you let me know which family groups or companies they are working for so I can do a mea culpa.
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BR | 26-Jul-2012 12:57 pm
The article missed Baker & McKenzie which was one of the first (if not the first) firm to hire female lawyers in RIyadh and at many points females have constituted half the lawyers in the Riyadh office! Have to say that most of them are promising and talented.
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Anonymouse | 26-Jul-2012 7:54 pm
@BR
Are they lawyers?
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