The Ministry of Justice has adopted a long-awaited decision allowing foreign lawyers to appear in Saudi courts and to practice the profession in the country. The General Administration of Advocacy at the ministry is coordinating with the labor offices in the Kingdom to seek the help of foreign lawyers and to recruit them from their countries. Thus far the ministry has approved more than 245 applications for hiring foreign lawyers, a senior official was quoted by Al-Madina Arabic daily as saying. Saudi lawyer Sultan Bin Zahem, Deputy Chairman of the National Committee for Lawyers, who is also Chairman of the Lawyers Committee at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Madina, has reiterated that Article 41 of the regulations governing lawyers in the Kingdom emphasizes the possibility of seeking the help of non-Saudi lawyers. He pointed out that the regulations make it imperative that foreign lawyers be registered with the appropriate legal authorities in their country and that they have a university degree in law. Dr. Majed Gharoub, Chairman of the National Committee for Lawyers, has called upon the General Administration for lawyers at the Ministry of Justice to ease restrictions so as to allow Saudi law firms to seek the help of foreign lawyers. He based his appeal on the grounds that the development of the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution (CIP) has resulted in it opening branches all over the Kingdom. Apart from this, appeal courts have been established in various regions of the country. All of this has led to a growing demand for foreign expertise specialized in commercial, criminal and civil law. He said that all of these reasons make it necessary for Saudi law firms to recruit lawyers, be they Arabs or non-Arabs, because this would enable law firms in the Kingdom to compete on an equal basis with law firms in the Gulf states which take a large part of Saudi legal work worth an estimated SR4 billon annually. Citing an example, Gharoub said that usually most large Saudi companies seek the consultation of foreign law firms, particularly in large investment contracts, pointing out that Saudi lawyers will benefit greatly from the expertise of foreign lawyers. “It should also be borne in mind that most contracts of the mega projects in the Kingdom are usually processed in law firms abroad. All of these facts support the urgent need for the recruitment of foreign lawyers in the Kingdom. Thus the ministry must relax the law restricting the recruitment of foreign lawyers,” he added. __
