Insights on the Arabian Gulf from the world’s ‘most feared’ law firm

That said, economists now recognise that disputes and arbitration are one of the best barometers of business activity, with deal flows measured and facilitated by the completion of contracts between said parties.

And, for the Gulf this is especially true, with the region seeing a host of mega deals, giga projects and the rise of cryptocurrency and regulation playing into daily activity of the business world.

So to get a sense of the region’s potential, Arabian Business sat down with John B. Quinn is a lawyer and one of the founding partners of the litigation law firm known today as Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Among the titles he’s held on his journey are being named as one of America’s ‘Most Influential Lawyers’ and the nation’s ‘Most Famous Practicing Lawyer’.

Meanwhile his firm, which has more than 900 litigators in 29 offices around the world, is known the world’s “most feared” law firm – one that “top legal decision makers do not want to see on the other side.” 

Let’s start with the Gulf, what it the opportunity you see in the region, and any particular nations leading the way?

In my view of Saudi Arabia is the most energised, unified country in the world. The people there seem to share a vision, that they all believe that this is their time, especially now as they have the means to execute on some of these incredible, incredibly ambitious plans.

We see the opportunity. A lot of money has been invested around the world, there are joint ventures and there’s a lot of inbound investment. There’s a lot of the gig projects, from Neom to the Red Sea project and the rest. And with them will come a number of issues which will need to resolved by people like us, so we see a huge opportunity there.

Doha, we’ve been in Doha for many years. That is pretty much strictly a construction disputes, practice. So when they are building a subway, a hospital, a university, World Cup stadiums, museums, all those big public projects, inevitably, doesn’t matter where they’re built, there’s going to be a certain amount of construction dispute. So we have people on the ground there who are kind of the interface with the client. Really, the disputes are resolved in London. So Doha is a kind of a specialised practice, but it’s not lost on us that there’ll be opportunities for that type of work in the Kingdom as well.

One unique character of Gulf countries is stability of leaderships, national plans are not disrupted by the vagaries of politics, do you think that gives the region an advantage?

Yeah, for sure. Decision making is easier there, we’re not going to have a situation like we had in Mexico City, where they were half halfway to completing a new, badly needed International Airport and you have a change in president and he just pulls the plug on the project because there’s a different view.

The Saudi economy is bigger than all the rest of the Gulf region combined. However, in some ways, and many people have acknowledged this to me in the Kingdom, they’re playing catch up. In terms of the sophistication, you look at some of the sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi and way Dubai has become a world city, like Singapore. So there is this huge capability and ambition, but they’re starting from some way back, there’s a lot of room for them to grow even in their neighbourhood.

That said, every time I go back, the pace of change is incredible. Every time I’m struck by something new, and you know, I go multiple times a year. They have an aggressive plan to make Riyadh a regional centre and to get companies to move their headquarters there. That is a tall order though, especially given what Dubai has become. But look, I can remember not that long ago you could not get a decent meal in Riyadh, or at least that’s how it seemed to me, and now we have a burgeoning fine dining scene, an arts district and contemporary arts galleries. These didn’t exist say a year or so ago, given the means they have, I don’t think you can rule anything out.

For the last 12 to 18 months, the biggest topic of conversation have revolved around cryptocurrency, from its regulation to its wild ride. As a business focused legal leader, what’s your view?

Well, first off, let’s talk when the blockchain, which I think is something separate and different than crypto and that’s important, it has proven use cases. And even the Jamie Dimons of the world have endorsed the blockchain.

I think more generally, if you think in terms of decentralised finance I do think that has the ability to revolutionise finance and the concept of ownership as we know it. Everything’s turning digital, right. So why not ownership? Why not finance?

If you took a black sheet and designed a financial system today, there’s no way you would design the financial system that we have with all these inefficient intermediaries, with banks and stock exchanges. You would have some form of digital fractionalised ownership that was transparent, seamless, and without the transaction costs that come with having to deal with all the intermediaries. To me it’s just a matter of time before, in one form or another, the whole system gets reorganised along these lines.

But in terms of cryptocurrencies, I think we’re at a super early stage, and there’s going to be lots of failures. There’s going to be a few survivors, but it’s going to be chaotic, and highly volatile for a while.

Another hot topic in board rooms has been the future of work, and whether teams should be back in the office or working remote. As a business leader with global operations, what’s your take on that?

Well, our firm we’ve adopted a work from anywhere policy indefinitely we’re not requiring people to come into the office. This was driven in the first instance by recruiting the challenges we had recruiting talented young people in particular.

We thought that there might be really highly qualified excellent young lawyers in places like Boise, Boise, Idaho, Des Moines, Iowa, Charleston, South Carolina, who needed to be there for the reason they needed to be there and wanted to be there.

So, the only way that we could attract them as if we had such a policy, and in those cities, there wouldn’t be firms that do what we do. It was a way for people who aren’t in major metropolitan areas but who are talented and can contribute to become part of a major global disputes practice. That was the genesis of it, and we’ve had a lot of success.

That’s the upside but also obviously its presents very clearly some challenges, this is not how we all learn to practice law. The informal walk into the office of the lawyer next door, the watercooler conversation, the in-person mentorship, for these people that’s not going to exist. So the question is, how do we reinvent that for a virtual environment? And that’s something that we’re paying a lot of attention to by creating the Quinn Emanuel Academy, various programmes that offer check ins and groups and mentors who are assigned to people wherever they may be.

The other half of it is, there are people who want to come to the office, and we have to make that attractive. That includes thinking about how to redesign the space because office space should be for people to come together. It shouldn’t be for them to open the door and go into their individual rooms, what’s the point?

While there is a lot of doom and gloom about the global economy, let’s finish on an optimistic note. What’s exciting you for the rest of the year?

As the world gets smaller, and I know people talk about globalisation but I don’t think there’s any turning back from globalisation, I think that the prevalence of cross border disputes for our practice areas, where we have lawyers from different jurisdictions all around the world are locally qualified, who work together to solve problems for our clients. That’s very exciting, very satisfying. We only see we only see more demand for what we have to offer.