About

Over the last two years the legal department at the Qatar Railways Company has expanded to include specialised lawyers in the maintenance and operations of railway systems. Qatar Rail was initially established in 2010 to implement three rail projects, the Doha Metro, Lusail Light Rail and Long Distance. At the time of its founding there were no administration procedures or documentation in place. Stephen Hibbert, general counsel at Qatar Rail, together with his team, have negotiated and drafted over QAR 100bn ($27.5bn) of contracts in a time frame of just four years. Through the innovative efforts of the team, a core form of contract is applied across all major procurements allowing the organisation to benefit from a constant risk assessment model while significantly increasing efficiencies in project management. As the company has grown the legal department has proved itself as the one point of contact that interfaces with almost all segments of the company extending their services far beyond contracts.