Continuing its Middle East growth, downtown-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP launched an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November.

The all-purpose law firm added 12 partner, of counsel and associate attorneys to its roster at the Saudi capital. They help comprise a total of 14 new partners and 19 new associates added to Gulf Arab markets in the past year, bringing its total headcount in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and now Riyadh to 35 attorneys.

“Between the firm’s offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai…we have successfully built a market-leading presence in the Gulf with world-class practitioners,” said Barbara Becker, chair and firm managing partner for Gibson Dunn, in a statement. “With our leading international practices in energy, project finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, regulatory and international arbitration, expansion in Saudi Arabia is a natural step.”

Riyadh partner-in-charge Megren Al-Shaalan highlighted the expansion as complementary to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, which seeks to substantially diversify the nation’s economy and boost its global standing. A variety of infrastructure, public works and commercial projects help to compose this plan, all of which require extensive legal work to execute.

“Our team, which covers all main practices and has long-standing expertise in the kingdom, possesses the collective experience to ensure clients are best served when conducting business both locally and internationally,” Al-Shaalan said in a statement.

The move caps a busy year for Gibson Dunn’s Middle East presence.

The firm in January added a new office in Abu Dhabi, the capital city to the United Arab Emirates, with focuses on project development, mergers and acqustions and capital markets within the region’s energy markets and infrastructure. It later added a banking and finance team to the office.

Additionally, the firm hired Marwan Elaraby, now partner-in-charge of the Dubai office, in October 2022 to run a corporate practice in the region.

Attorneys from both the Abu Dhabi and Dubai locations advised the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in its initial public offering of ADNOC Gas in March. The IPO, which raised $2.5 billion, was the largest-ever listing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.