Will Big Law shut down its Middle East offices?

Every major law firm had the same slide in their strategy deck: 'We need to be in the Middle East.' So they went, hard. 30+ firms opened Saudi offices. Then the region they'd bet everything on went to war.

This has turned Big Law's biggest opportunity into it greatest challenge. We cover what this means and how you can use it to impress law firms.

Why Everyone Piled In

Saudi Arabia dropped Vision 2030 back in 2016. The pitch? "We're done being just an oil country." Crown Prince MBS wanted tourism, tech, entertainment, financial services; the works.

Qatar had a similar glow-up plan. The UAE? Dubai and Abu Dhabi had been diversifying for years and were basically already running as the world's favourite address for hedge funds, family offices and sovereign wealth.

• 💸 And the money behind all of this? Eye-watering. Just in Abu Dhabi, sovereign wealth funds Mubadala and ADIA are managing trillions. They're deploying it into PE, real estate, infrastructure and public markets across every continent on earth.

When money at that scale moves, it needs lawyers. A lot of lawyers.

Then Big Tech showed up. Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Nvidia, all building massive data centres across the region to power AI. Every single one of those projects meant licences, land deals, construction contracts, regulatory approvals, tech agreements. That's a feeding frenzy for law firms across multiple practice areas.