RIYADH: DWF Group, UK’s largest listed legal business, will set up its regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
Sir. Nigel Knowles, the group’s global CEO, made the announcement at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Wednesday.
“We’re here in Riyadh, and it’s great to be back once again to announce that we’re going to make Riyadh our regional headquarters for our Mindcrest and connected businesses to offer those professional services to businesses in the region,” Knowles told Arab News.
“But specifically Saudi Arabia, which is a very dynamic country and we’re absolutely certain that we can be relevant to all the people and businesses here with positive outcomes for everyone,” he added.
He explained that the group is divided into three divisions on a global basis.
“One is legal advisory, which is the traditional law firm services, the next one is Mindcrest, which deals with document management, e-discovery and a whole heap of money services requirements for clients,” he said.
They also have a connected services business which offers a whole range of services which are not legal services, but closely connected to legal services.
“So we’ve got three offerings effectively, which makes us a legal business, not a law firm,” he said.
Mohab Khattab, DWF Arabia’s incoming CEO, said DWF is a very unique law firm as it is publicly traded and for what it offers in its three different types of businesses.
“One is legal advisory — but what we’re doing for Saudi Arabia is we’re working in association with a local law firm to provide legal advisory services,” he told Arab News.
“The other two are more of quasi legal types of services, almost consulting like services. The first one is through a company called Mindcrest, which provides managed legal services. So, for example, offering contracts, management, risk management or compliance types of services — and so this offers a more commercially oriented service to the client that is very unique to Saudi Arabia and actually the region,” he added.
Khattab said the existing operations with Dubai and with Doha will now come under the Saudi regional headquarters.
“The other, which is the third business, is called connected, and we’re offering them through applications, even mobile applications for companies,” he said.
“So for example, corporate governance, types of services for companies, services, for example, for companies who have incidence management. So as an example, an insurance company can use this for their insurance investigators for accidents or, for example, any kind of incidents at an industrial complex,” he explained.