“The security situation is improving day by day,” said Hadeel Hassan, a Baghdad-based associate. “Also, the government is encouraging investment in Iraq and making things easier for foreign investors to come [here].”
While the office was never officially closed, the firm had to relocate its lawyers due to the worsening security conditions in 2006. Matters from the Baghdad office were coordinated through the firm’s Qatar office.
“Most Iraqi lawyers found themselves working from home [post 2006] and our attorneys were no exception,” said office head Nadia Salem. “However, [while] we’ve always kept a physical office presence, because the security situation is improving in Iraq, we’ve relocated our office and are reopening our doors, so to speak.”
The reopened office will now act on par with other Al Tamimi offices as a full service operation, hoping to capture clients through a two-fold approach, with Salem to boost its international exposure through conferences and client updates and Hadeel promoting the firm domestically. The office currently has four attorneys and is looking to expand this year with at least one addition. But while it had seemingly overcome the security problem, the firm was still left with one significant hurdle: choosing a suitable location.
“Did we want it in the Green Zone or the Baghdad International Airport? Both areas house most of our clients,” Salem said. “But much of our work is done outside of those zones as the ministries and court houses are not located in the Green Zone or the airport. In the end, we chose a very secure location, midway between those two areas.”
The firm expects work to arrive shortly, as the military presence will bring in foreign companies, while recent developments will encourage existing and future companies to seek legal advice.
“Clients [should] know that in Iraq this year, they need to set up a company if they want to be legally present, whereas in the past few years they didn’t need to be incorporated, they had immunity,” Salem said. “Now we’re looking at the US-Iraq SOFA [Status of Forces Agreement] and its impact on US contractors and [as a result] we’re seeing that all foreign companies really have to become incorporated.”