King & Spalding Increases Its Middle East Presence With the Addition of Five Lawyers

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES--(Marketwire - Oct 3, 2011) - King & Spalding increased its presence in the Middle East with the addition of five lawyers to its offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, the firm announced today. They are counsel Mazhar Khan and associate Hassan Al Jarrah, in Abu Dhabi; senior associate Phillip C. Sacks, in Dubai; and associates Sanjarbek Abdukhalilov and Martin Forster-Jones, in Riyadh. Their arrival adds to King & Spalding's strength in the areas of Islamic finance, finance, investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, as well as regulatory and corporate commercial work.

"We are delighted to welcome Mazhar, Hassan, Phil, Sanjarbek and Martin to our team," said Jawad I. Ali, managing partner of King & Spalding's offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. "We are dedicated to providing high-quality, practical legal advice to our clients and take pride in the fact that our lawyers not only are experts in their field, but also have extensive experience and successful track records in various jurisdictions in the Middle East and North Africa. Our new colleagues bring skills and experience that make our on-the-ground capabilities in those regions even stronger."

Mazhar Khan joined King & Spalding from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he was a senior associate in its corporate department. He has been involved in some of the UAE's largest transactions advising sovereign wealth funds, private equity and financial institutions. He also has unique insight into leading Dubai institutions, having been seconded to Dubai Group as acting general counsel, where he assisted with the group's restructuring and establishment of Noor Group, its Islamic banking and takaful division.

Khan was educated at the Oxford Brookes University, where he graduated with a first-class honors Bachelor of Law degree and was awarded the Blackstone law prize for academic excellence. He also has a Masters in Law in public and private international law. Khan completed his Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School, Lincolns Inn and is qualified as a solicitor and has been admitted to the Supreme Court of England and Wales. He speaks English, Urdu and basic Arabic.

Phillip C. Sacks joined King & Spalding from Walkers, where he concentrated on funds and corporate work in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. He specializes in investment funds, private equity, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He regularly advises leading sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions and asset managers on the corporate and regulatory aspects of structuring, establishing, re-organizing and liquidating fund structures. Sacks received LLB and BCom degrees from Murdoch University (Australia).

Sanjarbek Abdukhalilov joined King & Spalding from SNR Denton. Qualified in England and Uzbekistan, he advises clients in a wide range of sectors in relation to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and general corporate work. Abdukhalilov received an LLB in International Law from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and an LLM in International Commercial Law from the University of Nottingham (England).

Hassan Al Jarrah joined King & Spalding from Simmons & Simmons. Qualified in England and Wales, he specializes in corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity capital markets, restructurings and corporate governance. He also has experience advising clients on regulatory matters, debt capital markets, banking and finance, litigation and employment law. He received an LLB (Hons) from the University of Wolverhampton (England); a post-graduate diploma in legal practice from The College of Law, Guildford (England); and a diploma in international mobility-legal studies from the University of Toulouse (France). Al Jarrah speaks Arabic, English and French.

Martin Forster-Jones joined King & Spalding from Bonheur, a London-based legal outsourcing provider he founded after leaving Linklaters LLP. Qualified in England and Wales, he focuses on debt capital markets and finance transactions, securitizations and restructurings. He received a post-graduate diploma in legal practice, a graduate diploma in law and a diploma in French law from the London College of Law (England) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of London, Queen Mary (England). Forster-Jones speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

King & Spalding's Dubai, Abu Dhabi and (affiliated) Riyadh offices specialize in complex corporate M&A and private equity transactions, debt capital market transactions, financial transactions, project development and project finance as well as international arbitration. Many of the matters these offices handle are related to the energy, healthcare, education, real estate, property investment and development, hospitality and telecommunications industries. The firm has long been considered a leader in Islamic finance and investment. It has represented clients operating in the Middle East since the early 1980s, was one of the first firms to create a practice focused on this specialty and pioneered many of the Shari'ah-compliant financing and investment structures that are in common use today. The firm has a highly regarded debt capital markets team that covers both conventional and Islamic debt capital market products. Its energy practice is known worldwide for its oil and gas work, particularly in the area of liquefied natural gas, and also has a strong base in district cooling, electric power, petrochemicals and renewable energy.

About King & Spalding
Celebrating more than 125 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 800 lawyers in 17 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com.