Latham & Watkins has bolstered its Middle East practice with the hire of a highly rated M&A partner from one of Saudi Arabia’s leading independent law firms.

Leen Zaza has joined the US giant’s Riyadh office as a partner from Khoshaim & Associates (K&A) and will take up residence in its M&A and private equity department. 

Identified as a next-generation partner by the Legal 500 directory, Zaza advises on private M&A, joint ventures, divestments, corporate governance, corporate regulatory and advisory matters in a variety of sectors including energy and infrastructure, shipping, industrials, healthcare and life sciences. She also counsels boards and senior executives on general corporate regulatory and advisory work.

Zaza joins a 20-lawyer team at Latham’s Riyadh office led by capital markets specialist Salman Al-Sudairi, who chairs the firm’s Saudi Arabia practice and acts as office managing partner for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Leen is a highly regarded practitioner with first-class technical skills and a wealth of experience advising on some of the region’s most significant strategic M&A and private equity transactions,” said Al-Sudairi. “Her broad practice spans important sectors that are central to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious growth plans, and she will be a terrific addition to our strong and growing team.” 

Zaza joined K&A as an associate in 2012, having studied law in the UK, making partner in 2020, the same year that K&A and legacy firm Allen & Overy ended a longstanding cooperation agreement.

Her arrival at Latham comes less than a year after it lost another highly-rated female Saudi M&A lawyer, Noor Al-Fawzan, who joined Kirkland & Ellis last October to help it set up an office in Riyadh in a move that underlined the market’s importance to international law firms.

In March last year, Latham was in the first tranche of three international law firms to be awarded a license to practise in Saudi Arabia, alongside UK outfits Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills.

For Latham, the licence cemented a longstanding relationship with Al-Sudairi, whose firm was allied to Latham under the previous regime for international firms operating in the kingdom. 

In February this year, Latham further stepped up its commitment to the jurisdiction, winning a licence to set up a regional headquarters in the kingdom, thereby strengthening its ability to win lucrative government legal work. A month later it made up two project development and finance partners in Riyadh: Marc Makary and Derek McKinley.

Welcoming Zaza to the team, Charles Ruck, global chair of Latham’s corporate department, said: “Saudi Arabia is a major global financial and commercial hub and represents an important pillar of our global strategy.”

K&A, meanwhile, has recently bolstered its partner count, promoting disputes specialist Abdullah Alajlan to the partnership in July having hired corporate partners Christian Both and Omar Iqbal from Addleshaw Goddard and Baker Botts respectively in June.