Focus on: My career

As I look back over my career, it is clear that my journey to becoming associate general counsel – retail for Seddiqi Holding, a family business with a diversified portfolio of businesses and brands across numerous sectors, including luxury retail, began long before I joined the company.

In high school in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, I completed a 21-credit certificate in fashion design at Washington University. During my senior year at George Washington University in Washington, DC, I pursued a bachelor’s in business administration with a major in marketing. I was a student investigator at the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the enforcement division at the Federal Trade Commission, helping enforce the Care Labeling Rule. After graduating, I worked as a special event coordinator in the Fashion Office at Hecht’s, a large chain of department stores in the US, where I planned events to promote store products.

Fast forward to two Master of Laws degrees later and almost two decades of legal experience in private practice and in-house roles. I can confidently say that finding an opportunity to combine my legal education and experience with my interest in retail and fashion has been a dream come true. I began my legal career in the US in an American Law 100 firm, Polsinelli, in St. Louis, Missouri. Always eager to seek new challenges and broaden my legal knowledge, in 2007, I obtained my first LLM in taxation at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri.

After multiple trips to Dubai in 2007 and 2008, I felt drawn to the incredible energy and excitement of the city. I have always enjoyed travelling. I studied abroad in France and Italy — but I felt there was something extraordinary about Dubai. In 2011, I put my plans into action and moved to Dubai to practice law. I worked in corporate commercial and corporate structuring private practice roles in Dubai until 2017 when a partner with whom I had worked in private practice contacted me about a position she had heard about at Seddiqi Holding. She was familiar with my interest in fashion, so she thought I would enjoy the role. By then, I had been in private practice for over ten years, so I was a little reluctant to transition to an in-house position. However, as someone who embraces change and is drawn to the opportunity to combine my interest in retail and fashion with my legal background, I accepted the challenge.

As the largest distributor of Swiss Brand watches in the Middle East with a company portfolio comprising over 60 prestigious watch and jewellery brands, one of my primary roles as associate general counsel in retail is negotiating and drafting brand-related contracts. Given the diverse scope of Seddiqi’s business, I also act as a senior advisor across a broad range of practice areas. I attribute my ability to advise on such a diverse scope to the education that I have attained through my journey from my BBA (marketing), my Juris Doctor and my two Master of Laws, combined with my legal experience across multiple practice areas, including corporate commercial and corporate structuring and my willingness to take on projects outside my initial comfort zone. Furthermore, I am always seeking ways to expand my skills to add value to my work. I am pursuing an online graduate certificate in intellectual property law at Seton Hall University School of Law. I am also enrolled in French classes to build on the language skills I acquired while I spent a year abroad in Lyon, France.

As I celebrate five years as a member of the Seddiqi team, I cannot help but reflect on just how lucky I have been.