Dr Yazid Altamimi

I am a board-level legal executive and arbitrator with over 25 years of leadership across the GCC, Europe, Africa, and Asia, advising CEOs, boards, and investors across law, capital, and high-stakes decisions. I have served as Chief Legal Officer of Diriyah Company, Group Chief Legal Officer and Board Member of Binladin International Holding Group, Vice President Legal of Majid Al Futtaim Ventures, and General Counsel, MEA of Weatherford International, leading restructurings, M&A, joint ventures, governance, and compliance, and serving as director and chairman of numerous companies. I started my career as a litigator and have stayed close to disputes throughout, and I act as arbitrator and as counsel representing parties. I am the founder and Managing Partner of Blackthorn & Co Legal Consultants, a UAE boutique firm serving clients across the Middle East and the GCC on the contested, the contentious, and the distressed.

I am admitted as an arbitrator before the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) and the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), and an Engineering Arbitrator with the International Academy for Mediation and Arbitration (IAMA). I currently act as arbitrator handling several SCCA cases. As counsel, I led teams of top-rated silks and King's Counsel in multi-million-dollar arbitrations before the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, and SCCA, and before national courts. This included the underlying LCIA arbitration and the subsequent Section 68 challenge that produced the famous case W Ltd v M SDN BHD [2016] on an arbitrator's conflict of interest as a partner in a firm acting for an opposing party. Other cases I led include a USD 60M ICC rig-supply arbitration; a USD 528M LCIA EPC delay claim; a EUR 38M ICC airport-construction arbitration; and a SAR 65M SCCA arbitration in which I secured the first urgent suspension-of-works order, equivalent to an injunction in Saudi Arabia.

What I bring to the arbitration room is the boardroom and the C-suite behind it: the commercial judgment of a chief legal officer and the perspective of a director and chairman who has sat in the operator's chair across telecom, finance, real estate, construction, energy, retail, and luxury. I was recognized by Legal 500 on the GC Powerlist (2022, 2024, 2025), and I am admitted to the Jordanian Bar and a Professional Affiliate of the Saudi Bar.

I welcome appointments as arbitrator and instructions as counsel across the GCC, ME, and internationally.

Education: Professional Doctorate in Law, European International University; Diploma in International Arbitration, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; LL.M., Michigan State University; LL.M., Private Law, and PgDip, International Commercial Arbitration, Institute of Arab Research and Studies; LL.B., University of Jordan.