White & Case’s recent promotion of two Abu Dhabi associates to partner is the second effort to rebuild its Middle East practice after it lost all of its partners in the region last month.
The firm has made up Abu Dhabi-based M&A lawyers Zeeshan Ahmedani and Philip Power to partner, as part of a promotional round which also saw three new partners in its London, Moscow and Prague banking practices.
The departure of Doha-based M&A partner Andrew Macklin in late January left the firm without any partners in the Middle East. Macklin followed fellow regional partners Villiers Terblanche, Nick Collins, Christopher Langdon, and Mohammed Al-Sheikh to Latham & Watkins.
White & Case’s first response to the crisis was to transfer Singapore-based partner Doug Peel to Abu Dhabi and US-based executive partner Kenneth Ellis consequently to Doha. White & Case now has four partners in the Middle East, although none of them are stationed in the firm’s Riyadh office. A spokesperson did not clarify at the time whether the firm is replacing its former Saudi sponsor, Al-Sheikh. “At this stage, we are not in a position to discuss our longer-term plan for the rebuilding of our capabilities in the Middle East other than to reiterate our commitment to our Middle East practice,” said the spokesperson.
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