If the legal industry’s exit from Russia last year was swift and shocking, the pivot to Riyadh has been as brisk but entirely predictable.
Within days of Big Law’s departure from Russia, Law.com International predicted that firms would naturally shift to the Middle East, Saudi Arabia in particular, whose vast stores of oil and natural gas work, under the cover of words like ‘digital’ and ‘market diversity’, would feed the wanting mouths of Big Law’s M&A, capital markets, energy and infrastructure experts.