The sun always shines in Doha, but in spring 2009 it beat down with an enhanced air of hope and expectation. Authorities in the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar were keen to focus their vast petro-dollar wealth on winning a centre position on the world stage — and embracing global precepts of the rule of law was high on the agenda.
In May of that year, the emir launched the inaugural Qatar Law Forum; it was organised by a prominent London-based Saudi Arabian lawyer, Malik Dahlan, who cajoled the great and the good of the western legal profession to join in what he described as a “Davos-style conference for the world’s legal elite”.
The leading speaker was Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice of England and Wales, who was then the president of the freshly minted Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre. Also on hand was a gaggle of City of London and US law firm partners, who were keen to promote existing branch offices in Doha or to plant new flags.
Many fine words were spoken during the conference and gala dinners; a little more than a year later Qatar’s bid for the 2022 football World Cup was approved. The sun shone.
The sun still shines in Doha, but geo-political storm clouds loom over Qatar’s economy and the future of western law firms in the country. Over the past few days, Qatar’s neighbours and fellow Gulf Co-operation Council members Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, along with Egypt, have broken diplomatic relations and travel links with the country.
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They accuse Qatar of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and groups linked to al-Qaeda in Syria and Libya.
Eight years ago, western law firms were almost as much in love with Qatar as they were with Dubai. Now they are having serious second thoughts.
Partners at several City law firms with established outposts in the Gulf dived for cover when asked this week for their comments on the diplomatic situation and the future of legal practice in Qatar.
One source at a City firm with a long history in the region insisted on absolute anonymity when commenting: “Law firms shy away from even mild controversy. Those with offices in Qatar will be keeping their heads down and hoping this blows over fairly soon.”
However, jihad-inspired terrorism does not appear to be a phenomenon that will disappear soon. And, even before the diplomatic furore kicked off, City law firms were experiencing cold feet in the heat of Qatar.
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In February, Clifford Chance, one of London’s “magic circle” law firms, pulled the plug on its six-year-old Doha office, saying: “from our ongoing discussions with both our Qatari clients and international clients looking to invest in Qatar, it is clear that there is no longer the same need for a presence on the ground in Doha”.
Shortly after that firm’s departure, another significant City player, Herbert Smith Freehills, pulled out of Doha.
Four months ago, those qualms about the jurisdiction were ostensibly motivated by business reasons — falling oil prices and a still relatively small corporate market. Yet fears over the funding of terrorism and the approach to the rule of law in the country have always bubbled below the surface.
There have been consistent grumbles that assembling leading judges from various jurisdictions to run the Qatar international commercial court amounted to little more than window-dressing.
Lord Woolf stood down as the court’s president five years ago, but he remains positive — albeit while acknowledging that on his departure the Qatari government donated £1 million to his Woolf Institute, which studies inter-faith relationships.
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“The Qataris were interested in promoting the rule of law and were very concerned not to discriminate against people of different faiths,” Lord Woolf told The Times this week.
He was succeeded as the top judge at Qatar’s international court by Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the former president of the UK Supreme Court, who still holds the lead role in Doha.
In common with Lord Woolf, Lord Phillips would not comment on the political row in the region. Instead he told The Times that the Doha court “provides a forum for resolving disputes that involve parties connected with the Qatar Financial Centre.
“We have recently been given jurisdiction to supervise arbitrations and enforce arbitration awards if the parties so agree, and we expect to be granted jurisdiction to resolve any dispute that the parties agree to submit to us.
“As such our function is to reassure commercial parties that their disputes will be resolved promptly and fairly in accordance with the rule of law. Qatar has a Centre for the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption and the members of the international court are prepared to assist with activities of this centre.”
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Lord Phillips also pointed out that the local authorities were planning yet another rule of law forum for this November in Doha. The atmosphere is likely to be a little tenser than when the curtain first went up on that event eight years ago.