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AL-KHOBAR – Saudi women lawyers qualified to practice law in the Kingdom will be allowed to establish their own law firms, according to legal experts.
“Like their male counterparts, Saudi women lawyers can set up their own law offices and hire legal assistants,” said Dr. Ahmed A. Audhali, a leading lawyer in the Eastern Province. He said women lawyers can also join existing law firms managed by male legal advocates.
Mohammad Al-Issa, Justice Minister, recently announced that the ministry intends to issue a new draft law that will license women lawyers to practice their profession and represent other women in personal status cases pertaining to divorce, alimony and child custody. The new law will also allow women to perform basic procedures with notaries, such as registering and mortgaging property and authorizing corporate sponsorships and gifts.
“We in the legal profession are waiting for the minister of justice to issue the guidelines licensing women lawyers to practice. Until such time, women lawyers will continue working in jobs inside the women’s section of law and government offices,” Audhali said.
As part of ongoing judicial reforms, family courts will be established in which women lawyers will be allowed to practice.
The number of qualified women lawyers to be licensed is not known, according to Audhali. “We will know which lawyers are qualified to practice after the list of licensed women lawyers is released by the Ministry of Justice,” he said.
Most Saudi women lawyers are graduates of foreign universities, such as those in the United States, UK and Egypt, because no university in the Kingdom offers law courses for women.
“Based on their educational background, many Saudi women lawyers are good and we therefore expect a good performance from them,” Audhali said.
Another lawyer, who specializes in labor and civil laws, said interaction between women lawyers and judges who are all religious clerics could pose a problem. The appointment of women judges in family courts would be the solution, he said. – SG

The UK government may be stalling on the issuance of a sovereign sukuk in the wholesale sterling market, but the country took a step nearer to facilitating the issuance of the first UK corporate sukuk. Come end of February 2010, the necessary final legislation should be adopted by the House of Commons following the introduction of The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Order 2010 by Treasury to support Islamic finance and the issuance of corporate sukuk within the UK.

According to the Treasury, Order 2010 will help to provide a level playing field for corporate sukuk within the UK and provides clarity on the regulatory treatment of corporate sukuk, reducing the legal costs for these types of investments and removing unnecessary obstacles to their issuance.

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JEDDAH: The law firm of Khalid Alnowaiser, with offices in Jeddah and Riyadh, plans to provide free legal advice to the victims of social crimes in conjunction with humanitarian and charitable organizations in Saudi Arabia.

As the number of violent crimes and incidents of domestic violence have increased dramatically in the Kingdom, particularly in lower socio-economic populations, the Alnowaiser law firms free service will serve the poor and defend their rights in the courts.

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THE rapid growth of the Islamic banking and finance sector and the steady globalization of the industry have seen a proliferation of institutions offering degree, diploma and training courses in Islamic finance. Next month, Dauphine University in Paris, an economics and finance higher education institution in France akin to the London School of Economics (LSE), is launching its masters degree in Islamic finance. Similarly, Reading University in the UK has signed an agreement with an institution in Luxembourg to offer Islamic finance courses.

Reading University is already jointly offering a one-Year Masters (M.Sc.) in Investment Banking and Islamic Finance in cooperation with the International Center for Islamic Finance Education (INCEIF), the Islamic finance training arm of Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank. Under the arrangement INCEIF provides the curriculum and students spend two terms on the campus at Reading University and one term at INCEIF in Kuala Lumpur. INCEIF in fact has similar programs with universities in Indonesia, Pakistan and Bahrain.

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JEDDAH: Well-known Saudi lawyer Khalid Alnowaiser will participate in the Oct. 4-9 global law conference in Madrid entitled Terrorism and Global Economic Issues, organized by the International Bar Association (IBA).

Spains King Carlos I will address the opening session of the conference, which will bring together international personalities, eminent judges and approximately 6,000 senior legal practitioners from 127 countries.

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MANAMA – Bahrains central bank is preparing to tighten its rules on liquidity, after troubles at two family-owned banks forced the regulator to take control of both institutions in July.

Under the proposed changes, published on the Central Bank of Bahrain s website, banks will have to increase the amount of liquid assets held, submit to more frequent checks by the CB and ensure that their long-term lending obligations do not starve them of ready cash in a crisis.

Last month the CB placed both Awal Bank and The International Banking Corporation (TIBC) in administration, citing a large shortfall in their assets compared with their liabilities.

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Saudi Arabia is home to a large number of skilled, semi-skilled and professional foreign workers. Many entrepreneuring expatriates have successfully set up their own businesses in the Kingdom. However, an expatriate seeking to start a business should do so only through the legal channels, failing which he can face dire consequences.

“Expatriates can initiate business activities in industry, contracting and other services.  The SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) that was formed a decade ago has laid down relevant rules and regulations for foreign businessmen to run their businesses in the Kingdom,” said Abdul Aziz Shehzad, legal advisor in the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI).

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MANAMA – Bahrains central bank, which took control of two local banks linked to a pair of troubled Saudi firms, Sunday appointed external administrators to operate the banks.

The central bank assumed control of Saad Groups (SAADG.UL) Awal Bank and Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Bros unit, The International Banking Corporation (TIBC), in July, citing a substantial shortfall in their assets compared with their liabilities. In a statement Sunday, the central bank named UK-based law firms Charles Russell LLP and Trowers & Hamlins as administrators for Awal Bank and TIBC, respectively.

The regulator said it chose law firms as administrators given the number of legal cases to which both banks are party or were likely to be a party, without elaborating.

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UK cooperation with Malaysia in Islamic finance was reinforced recently by the visit of a high-level Islamic finance delegation headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and organized by the Malaysia-United Kingdom Islamic Finance Forum in collaboration with the Commonwealth Business Council. This follows from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in February 2009 between Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), the UK government entity that supports companies trading internationally and overseas enterprises seeking to locate in Britain, to establish a collaborative framework to promote mutual cooperation in the area of Islamic finance. Under the MoU, a joint council was set up, and the Kuala Lumpur meeting follows the one held in London earlier this year. The increasing awareness and appreciation of the inherent strengths of Islamic finance and its tremendous potential for advancement have ignited interests amongst the global financial community to venture into this new sphere of finance. Taking advantage of the increasing role of Islamic finance in bringing together different parts of the world with surplus funds in search of investment opportunities, with those that have financing needs, will increase these mutually reinforcing prospects. We look forward to Londons participation in this new financial evolution, explained Zeti Akhtar Aziz, governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, to the Lord Mayors delegation in a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in mid July.

The meeting was specifically organized with the Malaysian financial community to discuss the opportunities and areas of collaboration in Islamic finance an important potential avenue for strengthening financial and economic linkages not only between Malaysia and the UK but also with other economies of the world.

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After leading the East Asian entry into Islamic finance over the last few years through engagement and the possible issuance of a debut international Sukuk in Malaysia, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) concedes that it has lost ground to the new Asian kids on the block such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. JBIC was the first East Asian member of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) in 2006 and developed a sound practical knowledge of Islamic finance. Etsuaki Yoshida, deputy head of Africa & Middle East, JBIC, discusses the Japanese view on Islamic finance and what JBIC is doing to regain lost ground in the sector.

What is your focus in the Islamic finance sector?

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