Saudi Arabia has designs on the UAE's title of the Middle East's legal hub. Anchored by its $700 billion GDP and overseen by a ruler bent on commercial domination, it soon may, leaving international firms with a dilemma. Image: Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

At the heart of the Saudi Arabian business machine is the nation's government, atop which sits Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a man not known to shy away from a power grab. To get a sense for the government's commercial appetite, you need look no further than its carefully marshalled uber-macho rhetoric.

"We are going to make sure we take our share, which is going to be the lion's share, of the business in the region," said Fahd Al-Rasheed, chief executive of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City.

How are they going to do that? Simple. In February, the Saudi government was emphatic: starting 2024, it would stop contracting with any company or firm that had regional headquarters outside Saudi Arabia – U.K. firm DWF certainly got the memo. Many on the market interpreted this as a provocation to the UAE.