International law firm Withers will collaborate with Tareq Hawasli to launch Withers Hakawati, a new initiative to provide clients with a broad range of services, "delivered by trusted advisors who are attuned to the needs and perspectives of families and family businesses from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region".
Withers Hakawati is to be led by Tareq, a trusted consigliere to prominent GCC families with an extensive track record of helping them achieve their business and personal objectives in the US, UK. and the GCC.
Tareq said: "Families in the GCC region are hugely outward-looking and are looking to receive best in class advice and, at the very least, fair treatment from commercial or financial partners in other regions of the world. This responsibility to support and protect my clients is an Amanah which is dear to my heart. Creating relationships of reciprocity, mutual confidence, and understanding is key to deal-making, and that is what Withers Hakawati aims to establish, building on Withers' reputation as the leading international law firm for successful people and private capital."
Tareq will serve as a consultant within Withers and work closely with lawyers across Withers' international network, particularly with London-based partners Chris Groves and Stephen Nerland, to ensure that clients' opportunities are fully realised and that their interests are protected.
Justine Markovitz, Withers' Chairperson, adds: "Our clients rely on us to address all of their legal needs around the world, and our lawyers frequently act as close and long-term advisors to them, their families and their businesses. Withers Hakawati is a natural extension of this, focusing particularly on clients from the GCC region. However, instead of applying the generic approach of many US and UK-based law firms, we will offer the assistance of advisors who share the cultural background of GCC families and businesses and who put their interests first."
Tareq is a co-founder of Darin Partners, a full-service real estate investment and asset management company named after the 1915 Darin Pact of mutual alignment between Britain and the Abdulaziz Al Saud (Ibn Saud) which gave international recognition to Saudi Arabia. Tareq takes inspiration from this historic event to serve as a bridge for successful business relationships between the GCC, USA, and UK that are based on mutual trust and understanding.
Tareq's other partnership interests include US tech firm Flybridge Capital Partners, sports and entertainment, and he has served on the board of Sheffield United football club, helping lead them to promotion from League 1 to the Premier League. He has an MBA from London Business School, an OPM from Harvard Business School, has studied at the University of Georgia where he is a brother of Alpha Tau Omega, and undertook the Management Acceleration Program at INSEAD.
