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Despite being spread across a number of locations in the Middle East (namely Bahrain, UAE, Oman, KSA, Lebanon and Egypt) lawyers within the regional legal department at AXA Insurance are in constant contact with each other and get on well as a team. ‘They are a very personable group and are able to deal with the unique traits of each country which are very variable,’ says the team’s leader Marko Stamenkovic. Each lawyer within the team deals with a very broad range of issues – whether it be regulatory, dealing with the police (motor accidents), general commercial matters and attending court – and the lawyers are said to be ‘very professional and persistent and get the job done in an efficient and timely manner’ when dealing with such important matters. ‘There are a lot of different regulators in the territories with separate ones for commerce, health and of course, insurance so the team are pretty chameleon like in dealing with the different individuals and their behaviour,’ Marko Stamenkovic adds. The other major for AXA’s Middle East legal team according to Stamenkovic involves dealing with the tightening legal and regulatory environment, which whilst perhaps not as mature as the UK or Europe, still requires the team to ‘work out how issues will pan out and work the issue backwards from where you want to arrive’. Besides impressing with its work on some multi-million dollar contracts, complex litigation matters both in the Middle East and the High Court in London, the team has made positive changes internally by installing an electronic contract tool unifying the methods in which claims are managed in the various countries’ courts. Comprised of professionals, most of whom have in excess of seven years of experience in various jurisdictions, the team features such outstanding professionals as Maryia Abdul Rahman, Hassan Haider and Hassan Sayed.