George Sayen
Biography
George has been involved in handling Saudi Arabian legal matters since 1987 and resided full time in Riyadh from 1988 until 2020. He remains actively involved in advising both Saudi Arabian and foreign clients on a wide range of corporate and commercial and regulatory matters.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advising Shell on its divestment from its joint ventures with Saudi Aramco (SASREF) and SABIC (Sadaf), which operate an oil refinery and petrochemical complex, respectively.
- Advising the Saudi Ministry of Commerce in connection with the development of a new Commercial Franchise Law and implementing regulations, which took effect in 2020.
- Advising numerous international and Saudi companies in relation to disputes with joint venture partners.
- Advising the Spanish government owned shipbuilding company Navantia in connection with the sale of five warships to the Saudi Government and the negotiation and establishment of a joint venture company Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a Saudi government owned company.
- Advising Olayan Saudi Holdings Company in relation to a joint venture with Cummins for the distribution and provision of after sales services relation to Cummins' products in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.
- Advising Guerlain (part of LVMH Group) on their joint venture in Saudi Arabia and France with Sara Group and Beauty Vision and transfer of existing distribution business for perfumes.
- Advising Johnson & Johnson in relation to the formation of two joint venture companies and the transfer of a consumer products distribution business and a medical device distribution business from former distributors/joint venture partners to the new companies.
- Advising American Express Middle East in relation to the conversion of its local affiliate, a joint venture between American Express Middle East and Saudi Investment Bank, to a joint stock company in accordance with the Finance Companies Control Law.
- Advising the Ar-Riyadh New Mobility Consortium led by Salini Impregilo on various corporate and commercial and regulatory matters including government contracts and real estate matters in relation to its performance of Package 2 of the USD 30 billion Riyadh Metro Project.
- Advising the shareholders of United Arab Can Manufacturing Company in connection with the sale of 51% of the company to Rexam plc.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- New York City Bar Association - Member
Admissions
- New York~United States (1987)
Education
- University of Pennsylvania (J.D.)
- University of Pennsylvania (Middle East Studies and Islamic Law)
- Middlebury College (Arabic language courses, American University in Cairo)
- Dartmouth College (A.B.)
Languages
- Arabic
- English
- French