Two Kuwaiti law firms are merging to create a 97-strong firm.
Meysan Partners is to merge with Arkan Legal Consultants, creating an entity with seven equity partners, 46 fee-earners; 97 employees in total, according to people close to the matter.
Founded in 2015, Meysan counts regional blue-chip companies, multinational corporations, international financial institutions, sovereign governments, family groups, and high-net-worth individuals as clients.
The combined firm will continue to be named Meysan Partners.
The combination signals to regional law firms, including the UAE’s Al Tamimi & Co and Afridi & Angell, that they do not have a monopoly on legal expertise in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
A soft launch took place at the beginning of the month,
Meysan’s senior partner, Badr El-Jeaan, told Law.com International that he believes the merger to be “one of the more significant consolidations in the legal industry in the Gulf”.
The firm added in a statement: “All members of the Arkan and their staff will be working from Meysan Partners’ offices and will continue to provide the same high-quality services that all clients have come to rely upon.”
In 2020, Meysan, which has offices in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Cairo, Kuwait and Riyadh, was one of a trio of international firms to advise Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility Public Warehousing Company on its deal to sell unit Global Integrated Logistics to Danish freight forwarder DSV Panalpina.
The Kuwaiti market is highly lucrative.
Measured by dollar value of assets under management, sovereign wealth fund the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is larger than its regional counterpart, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Both funds have portfolios worth almost $700 billion, recent estimates show.
Meysan has acted for the KIA on a number of occasions.
El-Jeaan took up a four-year post on its board in 2017.
The political and economic backdrop to the merger continues to be muddied. On December 28, Kuwait announced the formation of a new government, its third within a year. The Gulf nation is also grappling with a future where traditional reliance on hydrocarbons income could be thrown into doubt.
