About

‘I had the opportunity to work with Heba Hamdy on several matters’, says one extremely positive nominating source when describing the skills of Cisco’s highly regarded corporate counsel for Middle East and Africa, formerly an in-house lawyer with Lenovo and Olive Group Capital. ‘I would simply describe her as everything you would need in an in-house lawyer. She is a very effective operator, dogged in achieving the aims of the organisation she acts for, very quick to pick up on the key issues in any legal matter and excellent in terms of presenting her analysis and conclusions towards influencing decision making’. Hamdy believes that an in-house counsel is more than just a lawyer. Her close engagement with business leaders throughout her career has shaped her mind-set to think like one. At heart, it is clear that Hamdy’s success has been built on an extremely business-focused approach to her in-house legal work, which has been well-received by her companies. Externally, Hamdy has also already received plaudits at industry press awards on the back of her excellent work. Hamdy joined Cisco in late 2016, and reports that she has introduced new techniques to the company’s legal training: ‘Let’s face it, compliance training rarely inspires interest among internal colleagues. With this in mind, I decided to make something different, and came up with a new and interesting format that is practical and full of interaction which has had excellent results’. Similarly, she has had a major positive effect in simplifying complex legal topics for other business units, successfully reducing large documents to one-page executive summaries which are comprehensible to, for instance, the company’s sales team. In terms of project work, she has been involved in numerous complex matters including notable ICSID arbitration cases and major cross-border transactions.