Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is luring British lawyers to work on Saudi Arabia’s megaprojects with lavish perks such as free land and the promise to pay their children’s private school fees.
The Kingdom’s state-owned companies are using lavish employee benefits to poach talent from elite law firms to help deliver the Crown Prince’s economic transformation plan, known as Vision 2030.
Saudi Aramco, which is building the King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), an industrial city designed to connect the Kingdom’s seaport, airport and highways, is offering free land for expatriates to build their own houses, thousands of pounds in relocation allowances, private school fees for their children to study abroad and free MBA courses.
Aramco, the second largest company in the world by revenue, also offers up to 48 days of paid leave and public holidays each year.
Lawyers taking jobs working on Neom, the Crown Prince’s $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) futuristic desert city, enjoy similar benefits. The utopian megaproject, owned by Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, offers free accommodation, five star catered meals and monthly plane tickets to those who take jobs.
These sweeteners are on top of the six-figure salaries and large bonuses, which they enjoy tax-free under Saudi laws.
Many ambitious British lawyers are now turning to Saudi Arabia in search of the lucrative, career-defining projects that were once found in Dubai.
“Dubai is quite a stagnant, settled market now,” said one legal recruiter. “The types of opportunities that you will get in Saudi if you go there for the next five to 10 years will greatly exceed even being in Dubai.”
Saudi Arabia has ramped up recruitment of expat and local lawyers in recent years as part of a radical plan by Crown Prince bin Salman, who is known as MBS, to diversify Saudi’s economy away from oil through multi-billion dollar infrastructure and energy projects.
UK law firms have in recent years opened offices in the Kingdom after a series of reforms, but the state’s hiring spree has left some struggling to recruit.
One senior partner working across the Middle East said the perks offered by Saudi companies were the “main danger to law firms”, even though in-house lawyers are typically paid less than those in private practice.
Law firms have rushed to the Gulf nation after a series of reforms designed to improve Saudi’s legal standing and encourage deal-making. Changes included removing restrictions that previously meant foreign lawyers could only work in the Kingdom if they were attached to a local practice.
Magic Circle law firms Clifford Chance, Linklaters and A&O Shearman are among the elite City firms now seeking to cash in on Saudi’s fast growing economy.
However, this has attracted criticism from the LGBT community because of Saudi Arabia’s anti-gay laws.
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