Architects Of Trust: A&O Shearman

A&O Shearman, formed by the 2024 merger of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling, brings decades of regional history in advising the institutions and partnerships that shape Middle Eastern business.

ADNOC in 1971. Abu Dhabi Global Market in 2013. A&O Shearman traces its lawyers’ involvement to the creation of both, placing its predecessor practices alongside two institutions with very different roles in the UAE’s economic development. A law firm can advise within an established market, or help shape the framework through which that market operates. This one’s regional history includes both.

That said, the line between the current firm and that earlier work matters. A&O Shearman came into being on May 1, 2024, through the merger of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling, bringing their practices into a single international organization. Its Middle Eastern presence today includes Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, connecting regional clients with expertise across English, US and other legal systems.

Institutional work runs on a longer horizon than any single transaction. Setting up a company or financial center raises questions about authority, responsibility and the rules under which future decisions will be made. Those questions keep mattering as an institution grows, changes ownership or enters new markets, which is a useful lens on a practice whose clients include governments, sovereign investors and private businesses.

One example is Allen & Overy’s advice to Mubadala in 2022 on the sale of stakes in Masdar to TAQA and ADNOC. The proposed partnership brought the three Abu Dhabi institutions’ renewable energy and green hydrogen ambitions together under the Masdar brand. The firm’s announcement described distinct ownership arrangements for the renewables business and the green hydrogen joint venture (a reminder that a shared strategic objective still needs precise corporate structures).

David Foster, now Managing Partner for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, was among the lawyers named in that announcement. Based in the UAE since 2008, he specializes in acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and strategic investments. His experience links the combined firm’s regional leadership with the work done before the merger, putting a human face on the continuity behind the new name.

The Masdar mandate also shows where public ambition meets corporate governance. Bringing major shareholders together requires a structure through which their participation can be organized.

Ownership percentages make one part of that arrangement visible; the bigger commercial task is working out how an enterprise can pursue a common purpose over time. The same questions face founders bringing major investors into their businesses.

The name on the door changed in 2024. The questions institutions face as they grow, change ownership or enter new markets did not. The test for A&O Shearman is whether the arrangements it drafts today still hold up when those decisions get more complex.

“A&O Shearman came into being on May 1, 2024, through the merger of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling, bringing their practices into a single international organization.