Georgetown Students Get Insider Views on Practicing Law in Qatar

Twenty-five Georgetown students recently attended a law panel luncheon to learn more about law as a potential career path. The GU-Q Office of Career Services hosted the event which featured a panel of three leading lawyers who have wide-ranging international and national legal experience.

The panelists were Salman A. Al-Ansari, partner at Al-Ansari & Associates; Nicholas Barclay, partner at Macfarlanes, LLP; and, Susan L. Guilfoyle, staff attorney with Patton Boggs, LLP. The three lawyers work in offices in Doha and advise clients on their operations in the Middle East, particularly on commercial and corporate matters.

The panelists explained how students need three traits to be successful in the field of law: First, a lawyer needs to be able to determine what the client actually wants. Often a client will ask the wrong question regarding their legal problem. A good lawyer will listen and determine what the client actually needs to be concerned about. Second, a successful lawyer can take a complex legal concept and explain it in layman’s terms to the client. And, third, a lawyer must be detail-oriented. The wrong preposition or an incorrect verb tense can change the meaning of a legal document; therefore, an obsessive attention to a document’s verbiage is an absolute necessity.

Al-Ansari emphasized how Doha is an international city with international firms that cater to clients from all over the world. He described how a law office made up of a group of attorneys who represent a variety of nationalities and backgrounds is especially effective in Qatar due to the multi-national profile of many of the clients who seek legal advice in the country.

The students asked a variety of questions and were pleased to hear that practicing law in Qatar sometimes requires one to be a jack-of-all-trades. Sometimes a day at the office can include advising a client from a multi-national commercial entity, a client representing a corporate interest, a client seeking guidance on Qatari family law, and even a client requesting criminal offense clarifications.Georgetown Career Services Manager Sandy Kim said: “I am thankful to all our wonderful panelists who came and who shared their experiences and advice regarding a career in law. It was one of the most popular career services events in the fall semester and it was great to see so many of the students being proactive about exploring a career path as an attorney.”