The ceremony, held in Doha on Tuesday 12 November, celebrated the leading local and international law firms, legal departments and academics in Qatar. Submissions were judged against a rigorous criteria of legal expertise, innovation, client satisfaction, business success and strategic vision.
Over the last year, Simmons has advised on numerous local and cross border financing transactions and that capacity is well-illustrated by the firm acting earlier this year for a syndicate of banks led by Société Générale on a 2bn Euro loan to Qatar National Bank which involved a cross border team from our Doha, London and Paris offices. In addition, the Simmons & Simmons Doha office is the only law firm to have advised on all three proposed bank mergers in the country. Specifically, the firm acted for International Bank of Qatar on their ground-breaking merger with Barwa Bank, which closed in April 2019. This was a very significant transaction as it was the first ever bank merger in Qatar, and the entity’s total combined assets are valued at more than QAR 80 bn (USD 22bn).
The winning Simmons team comprised of Qatar partner, Andrew Wingfield, Head of Regional Financial Markets, Muneer Khan, Of Counsel, and Supervising Associates, Martin Forster-Jones and Maha Lawson.
Qatar partner Andrew Wingfield commented:
“We are very happy to have been recognised for this award for the fourth year in a row. I believe this win demonstrates the deep expertise and commercial mindset of our high-quality team. Equally important is our ability to advise and give opinions on both English and Qatar law, which means we are competitively placed to advise on both local and cross border financings.”
