About

Soliman Abdel-Meguid is a vastly experienced and distinguished lawyer in the Middle East and the banking sector. His professional legal career began in Egyptian public prosecution between 1962 and 1982 where he eventually worked as deputy attorney general and judge. He then joined the banking sector starting with Al-Ahli Bank (ABK) in Kuwait as the head of legal affairs. During the 1990 Iraqi invasion, Abdel-Meguid worked with ABK’s Kuwaiti authority to protect the bank’s and its clients’ legal rights. He recalls that when the state purchased outstanding customer debts to Kuwaiti banks after the invasion, ‘I served as a senior member of the Debts Purchase Committee to unify the legal principles among Kuwaiti banks that govern the purchased debts. This was a watershed moment for the stability of the Kuwaiti banking sector at a time of crisis’. Abdel-Meguid left ABK in 2001 as General Manager to join the NBK in 2001 and worked as general counsel—head of legal affairs until the end of May 2017. During this period Abdel-Meguid demonstrated his skill in crisis management again during the global financial crash and subsequent fall in oil prices which created further market insecurity. ‘I played a leading role in overseeing the legal aspects of debt-restructuring in a multitude of high profile cases’, he says. At present, Abdel-Meguid is general counsel to NBK’s executive management team. During his time at the company, Abdel-Meguid has deepened NBK’s dependence on its own legal resources by enhancing the productivity of the legal staff and departmentalising the team into specialised units and deepened the expertise within each unit. He is valued both internally and externally for his regulatory work too, ‘I closely monitor parliament discussions of draft laws that are relevant to the banking sector. I study the drafts and issue my opinion on it to ensure that Kuwaiti banks are prepared to deal with the legal implications of forthcoming legislation. I also circulate my legal opinion to the Kuwaiti Banks Association in order to unify the Kuwaiti banks’ positions before the draft becomes law‘. Given his experience, Abdel-Meguid’s legacy is extensive – he continues to train lawyers, some of whom are now general counsel and heads of legal departments in other Kuwaiti banks and institutions. He has lectured and been guest speaker at a number of universities in the Arab world including Oran University, Ain Shams and al-Azhar universities in Egypt and Institute for Banking Studies in Kuwait. Abdel-Meguid has also authored several academic legal publications.