Sally Safadi

• Provide legal advice on corporate, commercial, and regulatory matters impacting the company’s operations and strategic initiatives.
• Draft, review, negotiate, and finalize a broad range of commercial agreements, including hotel management contracts, lease agreements, license agreements, and service-level agreements, with a focus on legal risk mitigation and commercial viability.
• Prepare and review legal documents such as board resolutions, powers of attorney, shareholder communications, and meeting minutes, ensuring consistency with governance and compliance frameworks.
•Monitor applicable laws and regulatory developments in Qatar and relevant international jurisdictions, advising management on legal risks and required actions.
•Manage and oversee litigation and dispute resolution matters, including pre-litigation assessments, strategy formulation, evidence review, and coordination with external counsel to ensure favorable outcomes.
•Conduct legal risk assessments on contracts, partnerships, and operational decisions to safeguard the company’s interests and prevent potential liabilities.
•Oversee legal due diligence for investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances, supporting the group’s expansion and diversification plans.
•Support the registration and protection of trademarks, management of licenses, and submission of regulatory filings to ensure intellectual property and operational compliance.
•Work closely with internal departments, including finance, operations, Asset Managment and HR, to provide actionable legal guidance and ensure adherence to internal policies and contractual obligations.
•Maintain and update legal documentation and corporate records across all subsidiaries and affiliated entities, including authorizations, filings, and official registrations.
•Manage external legal counsel relationships and oversee the legal department’s budget to ensure cost-efficient and high-quality legal service delivery.

Review and assess a wide range of legal agreements, including loan agreements, shareholder agreements, insertion orders, NDAs, MOUs, AOAs, MOAs, and other relevant documents to ensure compliance and protect the company's interests.  Handle the incorporation and liquidation of companies, managing the legal aspects of these processes and operations.  Act as the main point of contact for communication with local lawyers in countries where the company doesn't have a physical presence, ensuring legal matters are appropriately managed.  Collaborate closely with the operations team and the General Managers, providing them with legal guidance to support operational and strategic decision-making.  Lead and manage a team of legal assistants and paralegals, providing guidance and oversight for their daily tasks, and fostering a collaborative and efficient work environment.  Address all legal matters related to the HR department, Marketing and finance, offering legal guidance to ensure compliance and best practices.  Take responsibility for the company's operations in Africa, Lebanon, and Cyprus, overseeing legal matters, compliance, and any necessary legal actions.  Regularly communicate with the Head of Legal, providing updates and reports on significant developments, critical decisions, and emerging legal issues.  Review and negotiate commercial agreements with clients and partners whenever needed, ensuring that legal considerations are properly addressed.  Follow up on and review litigation cases with external lawyers, ensuring effective management and representation of the company's interests.  Handle data protection matters, ensuring compliance with relevant data protection laws and regulations.  Review director resolutions and general assembly minutes of meetings (MOMs) to ensure legal compliance and record-keeping.  Handle IP registration with IP registration agents, safeguarding the company's intellectual property assets and rights.

Providing legal advice and guidance on all kinds of legal matters.  Drafting and reviewing the Board of Directors and General Assembly meetings documentaries and minutes.  Incorporating new companies locally and internationally (Preparing the shareholders agreements, Articles of Associations, bylaws, and the company's legal documents).  Negotiating, drafting, evaluating, and finalizing complex contracts (Leases, Services, NDAs, MOUs, SLAs, Partnership agreements, subcontracting agreements...) related to the business, and ensure that all the necessary issues are covered.  Following up on the Renewal Dates, Termination Dates, and Terms of Payments of the Company’s agreements.  Collaborating with the Management Services leaders (Business Development, Operations, Finance and Marketing) as well as the Corporate Services (Admin, Accounting & HR) to advice on the legal risks, business strategies and other issues related to the Company’s businesses.  Providing legal assistance to the Human resources team on employment matters and contract drafting for employees and other related matters.  Collaborating with the departments to educate the employees on legal and data protection requirements and to continuously promote a culture of compliance, integrity and data protection internally.  Providing assistance and support in creation of structures and environment for ethical and legal compliances and support enforcement of compliance policies across multiple business units of the Company.  Studying contracts and legal documents to make sure that it is in the Company’s interests.  Reviewing lawsuits of the Company with the external lawyers.  Negotiating contracts for the Company whenever needed.  Documenting and keeping all the legal documents secured and protected.  Develop a close working relationship with all the Units/Departments within the Company.  Participating and attending the departments meetings as and when required.

Identifying and preventing legal risks and taking required measures to mitigate those risks.  Identifying and assessing non-compliance risks associated to the activities of the bank, particularly non-compliance risks linked to new products and activities.  Assessing the efficiency of the procedures adopted by the bank to detect any violation or breach.  Performing the adequate tests to verify compliance by the bank’s employees with the policies set by the bank.  Implementing the compliance procedures needed to verify compliance with the laws, regulations, procedures and directives issued by the Central Bank, the Banking Control Commission, the Special Investigation Commission, card organizations and any other relevant body, in addition to FATCA and CRS rules.  Preparing an efficient compliance training program for the employees of the bank, and written directives in the form of a compliance guide that instructs the employees on the implementation of the laws and regulations in force.  Following up any development in the laws and regulations in force and propose, in line with such development, the necessary amendments to the policies and procedures of the bank.  Advising the Executive Management concerning compliance with the laws and regulations in force and notify them on the latest updates.  Verifying that the required corrective procedures are applied upon the detection of any violation resulting from non-compliance.  Submitting periodic reports to the Executive Management of the bank concerning the performed assessment and follow-up missions, the corrective step taken, and propose proper recommendations to limit occurring violations.  Submitting reports of any important violation or breach of the laws and regulations in force to the Executive Management and the Board of Directors.