Senior Legal Consultant
Kuwait Oil Company
Total years of experience :12 years, 7 Months
(Projects & Claims legal Team)
•The main role was to render, review, and amend the legal opinions for the entire legal group of the Company in addition to structuring legal analysis and responses to various claims or counterclaims raised by employer main contractors and subcontractors. Support the entire legal team in reviewing and making amendments to the drafting of all contracts and legal documents (construction contracts, consultancy agreements, development agreements, facilities management agreements, supply/service agreements, guarantees, performance bonds, amendment agreements, novation agreements, assignment agreements, settlement agreements, confidentiality agreements, MOU's, LOI's, general construction. Assisted with legal disputes and arbitrations, directly and through external advocates, including handling contract breaches by third parties and the subsequent breach or termination processes / default termination or convenient termination.
•Acting as supporting counsel and providing legal guidance on the day-to day legal transactions for Kuwait Oil Company's projects, such as procurement, construction and commercial matters including reviewing and rendering legal opinions advising all stakeholders / concerned teams (commercial & contracts teams) as to legal matters related to contracts or claims / litigation risk. Participated in pre-litigation negotiations with the top management in connection with any defaulting parties.
•Instrumental in resolving complicate legal entanglements, dodging all possible escalations of claims, and handling the de-escalation of imminent disputes with disputants and establishing legal defensibilities, strategies, and legal framework in KOC Contracts harmonized with the applicable laws of State of Kuwait.
•Support in providing advice on the interpretation and application of contractual and statutory provisions in order to implement and enforce legal contracts or assist in devising strategies for negotiations, disputes and other legal issues. Provided legal support and advice for CEO, Deputy CEOs, executives, general management including team leaders and advised Ed hoc Committees in terms of claim settlements, tender issue (RFP issues / pre-tender negotiation of contract terms and conditions) or legal opinion to strategize a legal plan or building defensibility for dispute / claims related matters.
•Conducted on frequent basis many legal lectures for Kuwait Oil Company's legal teams, Contracts and Commercial Groups. Mentoring the said teams and groups to focus on specific critical areas in the contracts and on the know how to establish defensibilities to prevent potential costly litigation.
•Lectured and trained junior legal advisors, and senior legal advisors as well on the proper drafting of legal opinions and handling claims. Established and singlehandedly structured a legal course for Kuwaiti junior legal counsels named "Legal English for Lawyers" whereby all junior lawyers benefited from this course through acquiring the knowledge of the law and its terminologies in English language, inter alia, the art of trial technique and dispute settlement (mediation & Arbitration) in English. Examined and ensured compliance with the applicable state & international laws and State regulations, terms of the stipulated provisions under the agreed upon contracts between the contractors or consultants and the Company.
•Rendered legal advice to the general management and other sister companies (subsidiaries of the parent Company KPC (Kuwait Petroleum Company) as well as other various steering committees on legal strategies and developments of business agreements.
•Fully conversant and specialized in International FIDIC and Contracts based upon FIDIC principles, including but not limited to LSTK, Oil & Gas EPC, construction EPC. Cost and plus, re-measurable and NTEV Fixed Price Contracts.
•Specialized in all type of Contract legal matters and claims resulted therefrom including confidentiality agreements (NDA), MOU, Joint Ventures agreements, joint production sharing agreements, concession, and drilling agreements.
•Rendered Legal opinions related to JV & Consortium entities in terms of application of bidders to tender process with KOC.
•Engaged in pre-tender negotiation for Kuwait Oil Company with high profile contractors such as Halliburton, Schlumberger, GE, and Weatherford inter alia, other prominent foreign Contractors.
•Mastering delay analysis techniques and default causation analysis as well. Exhibiting a unique ability to advise and render consultations on all matters related to claims in relation to time delays (concurrent delay and predominant delay) and contributory default.
•Conducted an evaluation, analysis and legal vetting of all claims and counterclaims, exhibiting exquisite techniques of settling claims.
•Using delay analysis techniques and deploying such techniques upon various complicated claims. Participated in pre-litigation negotiations with the management in connection with any defaulting parties.
•Reviewing the legality of the drafted documentation pertaining to counterclaims and contracts. Instrumental in the settlement of claims & disputes prior to escalation, establishing legal prophylactics framework to cease any possible escalation such as structuring contractual provisions for amicable settlement approach provision and many other ADR related provisions. Litigation Management and settling claims:
•Demonstrated ability to efectively manage litigation and investigations in various jurisdictions and to efectively manage external counsels in a cost-efective manner. Experience in Managing Corporate legal Risk.
•Possess excellent skills in assessing and managing corporate legal risk, including managing organizational compliance with the requirements of a regulated industry.
•Participated in pre-litigation negotiations with the upper management in connection with any defaulting parties.
•Spearheaded all critical legal projects and matters through Ad Hoc Committees or special task forces. Reviewed all contracts or any other documentation where the Company has committed itself and assess legal implications that need to be brought to the executive management's attention.
•Prepared, reviewed and modified contractual instruments to assist and support various business activities.
•Negotiated, reviewed, and drafted documentation for business transactions and prepared and advised on the necessary checklist to be adopted to ensure information is submitted on time. Distinguished Legal Achievements within the Oil Sector through KOC:
•2020 I rendered direct and an indirect assistance when and as it needed to the ongoing arbitration committee in terms of clarifying and demystifying the legal approach and the nature of the legal proceeding before the LCIA "London Court of International Arbitration".
•2020 Spearheaded a special legal taskforce along the side of KOC IT Group to defend KOC against infringement upon KOC's propriety and confidential Legal material / information that were impermissibly and illegally disclosed on U.S. Websites, and I have successfully and amicably settled the matter with U.S. owned website owners without court intervention.
•2020 Engaged as a legal member in the BOT Committee to structure a BOT agreement in compliance of PPP laws and I have rendered a specific legal opinion in this committee that has changed the legal approach to the issue and the legal course of the commercial objective.
•2017 A special legal project was assigned to me as a legal counsel representing Legal Afairs Group (P&C) of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). This specific task was assigned by Kuwait Petroleum Company / Ministry of Petroleum and energy to me reviewing and restructuring Cyberattack Confidentiality Agreement for the Gulf Cooperation Council, which was entered into between Saudi Arabian Oil Company ("Saudi Aramco"), Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (" ADNOC "), Bahrain Petroleum Company (" BAPCO )"), Petroleum Development Oman LLC (" PDO "), the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (" KPC ").This unique legal task was for structuring a Cybersecurity Confidentiality Agreement NDA for (Gulf Cooperation Council) GCC Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence Sharing Committee. This Agreement was entered into for the purpose of combating any possible cyberattack crime, which can possibly be committed by a third party against any of the Gulf Countries and also for the purpose of establishing cyber threat indicators, defensive measures, and any other aspect of cyber threat intelligence with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) energy companies. I have professionally handled this special legal task as KPC/KOC's lead legal consultant on behalf KPC for the entire Kuwait Oil Sector and successfully achieved the target objective and all KPC, KOC, KNBC IT Security Management, Security Intelligence Management and IT KNPC Management have appreciated our legal intervention, special achievement and professionalism in handling this said matter.
•(2017) I had been engaged in a critical legal matter with Soil remediation Group and very crucial legal issues needed to be resolved for Kuwait Petroleum Company, inter alia, other K-companies (subsidiaries) pertaining to Sludge Management (Of-spec weathered crude) - Soil remediation Legal entanglement as to SEED and KERP material. By virtue of my legal analysis and opinion, I have solved the legal entanglement as many legal issues overlapped, on one hand there was an issue of United Nations compensation resolution awarded as an environmental award for the State of Kuwait according to UNCC Decision 258 December 2005 for the oil disaster resultant from the Iraq's invasion. This said compensation was provided to a specific purpose of cleaning up the wet and the dray oil lakes, nonetheless, a conflict took place as to change of intent to use a diferent methodology for recycling the SEED & KERP Materials instead of mere cleaning up the waste. Then I personally solved the impediment as to the legal plausibility of using the United Nation Compensation Fund for the proposed recycling project or commercializing the wastes. Moreover, I have looked into whether such wastes deemed to be mere wastes or State wealth. Subsequently, I successfully issued a legal report & analysis and we successfully produced final legal opinion for de-entanglement and legally solving this apparent complicated issue.
•(2017) Engaged by instruction of Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) to legally review the terms and conditions of "ECA" Loan Agreement which supposed to be entered into with its subsidiary Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and Confidentiality agreement for contracting with "HSBC". This legal task is unprecedented experience to Kuwait Oil Company because KOC took the initiative to obtain a loan vide borrowing or processing a loan through Export Credit Agency "ECA" as HSBC Bank may become the actual lender in this transaction in question.
•(2017) KOC Ofice Complex Committee (Construction defect liability Case) for the purpose of settling a Contractor's claim out of court and KOC's counterclaims against the same contractor and harmonize the apparent irreconcilable disputes between KOC and both Contractor and Consultant. Engaged in a special task force for amending the "General Conditions of Contracts for Oil Field Services Contract" to minimize the unnecessary repeated bidder deviations. I have played a major role to enhance the General Condition of Contracts for Oil Filed Contracts and successfully achieved the desired objective of solving the conflicts between many contractual clauses and the related all legal encountered impediments. Moreover, in this regard, we have structured the legal framework for the Task force Team to fully comprehend the legal connotation of the used terminologies and definitions based on the legal theory and actual application of law. Ultimately, I have successfully structured very legally sound provisions for indemnity and liabilities including but not limited to new legal terms and definition in light of the current Kuwait laws. By achieving this critical task we believe that the amount of bidder's deviation shall be minimized and we in turn have achieved the required legal defensibilities required for KOC Contracts.
•(2016) engaged in "Local Content legal project" which was assigned directly to me by the parent Kuwait Petroleum Company. This legal task necessitated deep and lengthy legal analysis to harmonize the commercial and economical interest of State of Kuwait in whole and Kuwait Petroleum Company in part. There were commercial and economical recommendation needed to be implemented for enhancing the local industry in the Oil & Gas Sector and encourage the local companies and local contractors to upgrade