Ali Almihdar

Call date: 2003

Email: Ali Almihdar

Clerk: Mark Reeder

Areas of Law:	Business & Banking, Environment, Financial Services, Commercial and Corporate

Practice summary

Legal assistant: Caroline Kerswell

Ali Almihdar comes to the Bar of England and Wales with much experience of legal practice in the Middle East. His work covers the full spectrum of commercial legal practice from advice to drafting to arbitrations to advocacy. He has offered Saudi Legal advice and services over a wide range of subjects including advising clients in negotiations of contracts, formations of Saudi Companies, Foreign Capital Investment Licences for temporary or continuing commercial activities in the Kingdom, shipping, Intellectual Property matters, Agency and Distributorship, project constructions companies, arbitrations, litigation before Saudi Courts and Tribunals, Labour Law matters, and general Saudi corporate legal advice.

Educated in Law at Churchill College Cambridge, (MA & LLM), his legal career started as Legal Adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and then expanded, through Almihdar Law Firm (ALF) which he established in Jeddah in 1976, to handling work for that Ministry and many other corporate and private clients from many parts of the world including the UK, the USA and Western Europe. He has been the Honorary Legal Adviser to the British Consulate in Jeddah since 1998.

Being equally comfortable working in either English or Arabic, he is well positioned to represent clients in the English and Saudi Courts and Official Circles, and in any other jurisdiction where his dual qualifications will gain him rights of audience. He is also the holder of an official Saudi Translation Licence: Arabic to English and English to Arabic.

Ali has lectured at SOAS, London University on “The Means of Proof in the Shariah System of Law” in Dubai on “Rules of Evidence in Islamic Law”, at the International Bar Association’s 2nd Biennial Conference on Islamic Banking and Financial Law in Dubai where he spoke on “The Applicability of Shariah Principles in Legal Practice”, at C5’s inaugural conference in Dubai on Fraud, Asset Tracing and Recovery in the Gulf, where he spoke on “Tracing Assets in Saudi Arabia”, for the Saudi British Society at the Arab British Chamber of Commerce in London where he drew comparisons between certain aspects of the Shariah and the Common Law. In Jersey at a Bribery and Corruption Seminar in partnership with Bedell Cristin, “placing the 2010 Bribery Act into the global context with particular emphasis on existing legislation in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East”.

Jeddah contact details

P.O. Box 1180, Sary Street, Jeddah 21431, Saudi Arabia T: +966 2 6973311 F: +966 2 6977301

Publications

He is the author of the Saudi Arabian Chapter in Tolley’s “International Succession Law” (LexisNexis) now published by Bloomsbury Professional Publishing.

A selection of recent cases

Emarat Petroleum v Trafigura PTE Commercial Court Instructed by General Counsel, EMARAT
Worked alongside Richard Lissack QC to provide advice for an $81 million claim concerning contractual trading terms in the Gulf.

Al Charif Al Fadel v (1) Farhan Matouk Salim Alfrahan and (2) HRH Prince Mohammed Al Saud instructed by Reynolds Port Chamberlain LLP
Provided advice in Conference for a Cross Jurisdictional probate matter.

Saudi Coach Crash instructed by Irwin Mitchell LLP
Providing advice on a potentially large litigation matter.

Amelia Diana Sterling Rose v Kingsmount Properties instructed by Devereaux Solicitors
Providing advice for a property dispute with a Cross Jurisdiction angle with a Saudi Arabian counterparties.

Arab Banking Corporation/ABC Islamic Bank//Credit Agricole/HSBC/BACB v AHAB instructed by Withers Worldwide
Providing advice in a large scale Cross Jurisdictional commercial dispute being litigated mainly in Saudi Arabia with satellite litigation across several other jurisdictions.

Employment advice instructed by Withers Worldwide
Providing advice on employment matters between English and Saudi parties.

Taylor & Hua Dun Ya Petroleum Services v BGP & Al-Mandil instructed by Cripps Harries Hall
Providing advice in a contractual dispute on a petroleum contract, enforceability issues in Saudi Arabia for ICC arbitrations.

Consolidated Contractors Company v Buro Happold Consulting Engineers instructed by Beale and Company
Advice on a breach of a construction contract regarding a new KSA Embassy Building, Cairo, Egypt.

Succession advice instructed by Withers Worldwide
Advice to the Trustees of a Trust Deed, general principles and percentages of inheritance under Saudi Arabian Law.