How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?   

Managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises requires a strategic, agile, and well-coordinated approach. The key to success lies in balancing immediate risk mitigation with long-term strategic objectives, ensuring that the legal strategy supports the overall stability and continuity of the business operations. Managing such legal aspects, requires initially a proactive risk assessment and scenario planning in anticipation of a potential issue or legal threats that may arise from regulatory changes, contractual obligations and litigation. The legal strategy must be closely aligned with the company’s broader business objectives, which involves understanding the company’s risk appetite, financial health, and strategic priorities during crises – for example, securing regulatory approvals for urgent business and operational actions, identifying and negotiating certain contractual terms. It is also important that, at all times, effective communication and coordination is maintained between the legal department and other key business functions involved in resolving the crisis. The legal team should work closely with compliance, risk management, and finance departments to ensure that all actions taken are legally sound and aligned with the company’s risk management framework. Additionally, clear communication with external stakeholders such as regulators, customers and suppliers is essential to maintain trust and transparency during turbulent times. Finally, a post-crisis review is necessary to identify lessons learned and areas for future improvement.   

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?   

I continue to advise on strategic and expansion business initiatives in the MENAT region, which is one of the most complex and largest regions in EMEA. In my role, I provide transactional legal support for various lines of business – both conventional and Islamic products – by advising the business on optimal structures, advising on legal and regulatory requirements during execution, drafting and negotiating agreements, identifying required regulatory filings with the regulators and drafting regulatory submissions. In particular, I have worked on high profile M&A transactions, requiring a deep understanding of various local legal and regulatory systems and cross-border restrictions in the various MENAT jurisdictions. I can specifically refer to the below two recent transactions: 

ICD (Investment Corporation of Dubai) and Brookfield Corporation agreement with Olayan Financing Company and Lunate for the sale of a 49% stake in ICD Brookfield Place (ICDBP), a world-class commercial and retail property located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). This transaction represents the largest institutional third-party single asset real estate transaction in the UAE and the Middle East region as well as one of the largest office transactions globally since 2020. The transaction represents Brookfield’s first exit in the Middle East and recognises the building for its uniqueness in terms of quality, superior asset management, ESG credentials and placemaking.  

Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s primary renewables investment vehicle, acquiring a 50% stake in Terra-Gen from ECP. The transaction represents a significant acquisition for Masdar and is a milestone transaction in the fulfilment of the company’s 100 GW 2030 target in renewables capacity. It is a high-quality development platform in the US to support further growth, a market leadership in Utility Scale co-located BESS & solar and a marquee cross-border transaction illustrating the global impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act. The deal illustrates the continued attractiveness of the US renewables market for sophisticated global investors   

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?    

Integrating technology into legal processes has become essential in today’s fast-paced and complex legal and regulatory environment. In my role, I have leveraged the various technology tools available within the firm to enhance efficiency and deliver more strategic value to the organisation. This integration has not only streamlined operations but also increased the motivation within the team by allowing them to focus on more technical and intellectual tasks. We are leveraging a knowledge management system – which I champion for the EMEA region – to upload store, share and use legal and institutional knowledge to support learning and connect relevant content with people in the legal department. With such tool, we aim to optimise our ability to learn from each other’s experiences and build institutional knowledge, through a curated collection of content specifically relevant to the department. One of the most significant impacts of technology on legal processes is the automation of routine tasks – by implementing legal management software, we have created a repository of all client-facing documentation used for various products and services. This has led to faster turnaround times and increased productivity. We have also increased the use within the team of collaboration platforms, like legal project management tools and other tools allowing real-time updates, shared access to documents, and streamlined workflows, which are particularly valuable when managing complex projects. Finally, integrating technology into legal processes is not a one-time effort but an ongoing journey, which involves a regular review and update of the technological tools we use to ensure they meet the evolving needs of the organization and the regulatory landscape.