Sullivan & Cromwell is opening its first office in the Middle East, choosing Abu Dhabi as its launch point. The new location in Abu Dhabi Global Market, the city's financial center, will support clients in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf, drawing on the firm's record handling complicated, cross-border mandates.
The practice will be run by Ahmed T. el-Gaili, who is rejoining S&C as a Partner after working at Latham & Watkins in Riyadh. "Sovereign capital, private equity and infrastructure investment in the Middle East is fueling some of the most high-profile and complex transactions anywhere in the world," el-Gaili said, highlighting Saudi Arabia and the UAE. With two decades in the region, he told Bloomberg News the firm anticipates bringing on three to four partners and roughly eight to 10 lawyers to build out the regional team.
The timing reflects a pickup by Gulf sovereigns in cross-border acquisitions, infrastructure builds, and in providing financing as well as forming joint ventures. In particular, the wealth funds of Abu Dhabi have kept deploying billions, prompting Wall Street firms to bulk up locally even as a US‑Iran war shows little sign of ending. Against that backdrop, US law firms are seeking a firmer foothold and vying with long-established British and European competitors.
S&C currently has around 1,000 lawyers spread across the US, Europe, Asia‑Pacific and the Middle East. Bloomberg's league tables place the firm first among global M&A advisers this year, ahead of Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Among recent mandates: S&C counseled on Unilever Plc's divestiture of its food business, with McCormick & Co. as the buyer, for $44.8 billion, and on Sysco Corp.'s purchase of Jetro Restaurant Depot LLC at a valuation of $29.1 billion.
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A growing number of firms are relocating senior lawyers to the Gulf instead of running crucial relationships from London. In 2024, Kirkland & Ellis opened a Riyadh base in Saudi Arabia, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom launched its first Middle East outpost in ADGM in 2025. Paul Hastings, also in Abu Dhabi, has been building out its energy and infrastructure bench. Expect more on‑the‑ground legal expertise as mandates rise from sovereign capital and private markets, which can influence how big cross‑border transactions get done and where the action concentrates.
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