Al Tamimi & Co has confirmed that the firm’s managing partner since 2005, Hoda Barakat, has stepped down from the role by retiring from the partnership.
Although Bakarat (pictured) handed her notice to the firm in December last year, her retirement was only made official by the firm last week. She will remain as a consultant working on an ad hoc basis in the IP/IT practice, which she helped form after joining Al Tamimi 15 years ago.
Her retirement ends months of speculation about her absence at the firm – in October last year Barakat was said to be on ‘extended leave’ after Housam Hurani, the firm’s head of banking & finance, was appointed interim managing partner. Hurani has now officially assumed her position, having taken over the top job as of 8th December.
According to both Al Tamimi and Barakat herself, she left the firm amicably. “After a great deal of thought, I feel the time has come for me now to focus more on other areas that are important to me,” said Barakat. “Working on an ad hoc consultancy basis for the firm will allow me to achieve a better balance in life.”
With Barakat’s resignation, the Middle East legal market loses another prominent female from a management position. In 2008 Rindala Beydoun, Latham & Watkins’ Middle East managing partner, left that position to work as a partner in Vinson & Elkins.
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