King & Spalding Expands Middle East Real Estate Practice With Addition of Counsel Moustafa Said in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES--(Marketwired - May 29, 2013) -  King & Spalding has recruited counsel Moustafa Said to its Middle East team in the continuing expansion of the firm's regional and international real estate practice. Said's arrival follows on the heels of the addition in March of real estate partner Stephen Kelly. Both lawyers joined King & Spalding from Clyde & Co. 

Said is a legal specialist in the development, tourism and leisure sectors of the real estate industry. His practice will be focused primarily within the six member-nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Said will be resident in King & Spalding's Abu Dhabi office. He graduated from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, where he earned degrees in law and commerce (both with honors) and a diploma in modern standard Arabic.

"We are pleased to welcome Moustafa to our team," said Jawad Ali, managing partner of King & Spalding's Middle East offices. "He rejoins his former colleague Stephen Kelly at our firm, and their combined skill and experience further enhance our strong reputation for local and cross-border real estate matters stemming from the region."

Said's hire is the latest in a line of recent recruits during the past year to deepen King & Spalding's international real estate practice. In March, Stephen Kelly joined the Middle East practice as the firm's ninth partner in the region. In 2012, the firm established an English law property team with the addition of Nigel Heilpern from Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and launched a French real estate practice after securing a seven-strong group -- including partners Benoit Marcilhacy and Pascal Schmitz -- from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Axel Schilder, a real estate partner at Beiten Burkhardt, also joined in Frankfurt.

"These recent hires in the Middle East are the latest example of our commitment to building our global real estate practice to serve our clients, covering developers, financiers and service providers," commented Sarah Borders, leader of King & Spalding's capital transactions and real estate practice. "We continually look for high performing lawyers whose careers and experience are the right fit for the firm, and we will continue to strengthen the capital transactions and real estate team based on the needs and expectations of our clients." 

About King & Spalding
Celebrating more than 125 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 800 lawyers in 17 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents and is consistently recognized for the results it obtains, uncompromising commitment to quality and dedication to understanding the business and culture of its clients. More information is available at www.kslaw.com.