In October 2015 Waleed M. Shoukry joined Ezz Steel as the general counsel, where he currently manages a team of ten lawyers at the HQ corporate legal department, overseeing two legal departments of the group companies. During his time at Ezz Steel Shoukry has had significant exposure to diversified operational legal issues involving local and foreign laws – specifically in the EU – broadening his legal knowledge especially with regards to the interpretation of EU counsel decisions and regulations.

Internally, Shoukry takes pride in increasing associates awareness of the business needs, risk mitigation and generally working on enhancing the level of involvement of the legal department in the business dealings, specifically in negotiations, contract drafting, publications and marketing materials. Explaining this learning process Shoukry says: ‘This was achieved through coordination with different heads of functions of the Ezz group of companies and meetings with the legal department team of the subsidiaries to focus on mitigating potential legal risks’.

Responsible for negotiating a number of lucrative deals, Shoukry mentions the finalising of a high value facility syndication involving 13 banks and a total value of $170m, and also providing insights and defence strategies for litigations and arbitrations worth a combined amount of around EGP£30m.

Shoukry has worked together with the human resources and development department on a post graduate studies and training plan for the associates of the department and the subsidiaries targeting increasing legal knowledge and skills, defining career paths for each individual and the necessary training for achieving their professional goals. Shoukry started his career in 2000 as a junior associate at Baker & Mckenzie in the Cairo office and in 2002 joined the Egyptian public prosecution office for five years, in 2007 re-joining Baker & McKenzie as a senior associate before accepting his current role.