White & Case has announced it has established a new association in Saudi Arabia with the Law Firm of AlSalloum and AlToaimi.
Earlier this week The Lawyer revealed that White & Case had ended its five-year association with Waleed Al-Nuwaiser. The relationship came to an end in December and although the firm was known to be in discussion with a Saudi partner the new association had yet to receive regulatory approval.
In a statement White & Case’s head of Middle East Doug Peel said that the firm was establishing an association with the Law Firm of AlSalloum and AlToaimi and it is “business as usual for our clients while this new arrangement is being put in place”.
Zeyad AlSalloum and Yazeed AlToaimi are both senior lawyers in Saudi Arabia and are now association partners at White & Case. AlSalloum joined White & Case’s Riyadh office in March 2013 after leaving the Law Office of Abdulaziz H Fahad. Altoaimi joined the firm later the same year after working as a legal consultant at Naji Law Firm.
The new association is expected to be operational towards the end of the first quarter or early in the second quarter of the year.
White & Case has operated in Saudi Arabia since 1989 through a number of different associations. The firm partnered with Al-Nuwaiser in 2010 after Latham & Watkins poached its former association partner, Mohammed Al-Sheikh.
Recently, it emerged that Clifford Chance’s joint venture in Saudi was facing a legal challenge from the Ministry of Justice after the founding member of the firm’s partner firm Abdulaziz Al-Abduljabbar left to launch his own firm.
Clifford Chance has since appointed Khalid Al-Abdulkareem as its Riyadh office managing partner. A Clifford Chance spokesperson said that the firm’s regulatory approvals to operate in the region remained in place.