About

Broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera had a turbulent and controversial year in 2017, when it was at the centre of the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis and faced calls to be shut down by the Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini, and Egyptian governments. This episode is just one example of the sort of unpredictable event that an in-house legal team in a politically-important company is required to react to. As such, the Al-Jazeera legal team contains a number of highly qualified individuals who provide multiple skills across a range of issues to the organisation. In terms of individuals, associate general counsel for corporate and commercial Matthew Higham came in for particular praise from nominators, as did senior legal counsel Eithar Abutaha – both lending support and counsel in all aspects of media law and ongoing issues related to the company’s status.