Overview
Jonathan Fried is the head of our market-leading Middle East capital markets practice. He is ranked in the highest tier by each of the legal directories: three "Band 1" rankings in Chambers (Middle East-wide, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates), "Market Leader" in IFLR and "Leading Individual" in Legal 500.
His team is recognised as the market leader in the Middle East, awarded "Legal Adviser of the year" in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 by Global Banking & Markets.
Jonathan advises on the full range of capital markets transactions, across all sectors.
“Jonathan Fried is an amazing lawyer” and has “a very strong skill set.” “A prolific debt practitioner with considerable experience throughout the Middle East.” (Chambers 2025)
“A highly experienced practitioner who works closely with sovereigns, corporates and financial institutions across the Gulf.” (Legal 500 2025)
Experience
Jonathan's experience includes:
- US$100bn of sovereign financings for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Sultanate of Oman on the international markets across 50 series of securities issuances
- Financings in multiple currencies and into multiple markets for the leading financial institutions in each GCC country, including over US$50bn of capital and wholesale funding transactions for the largest banks in the region, Saudi National Bank, Qatar National Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD
- Capital markets issuances by some of the region’s largest companies including Mubadala, Masdar, Emaar Properties, Abu Dhabi National Power Company TAQA, Oman Telecommunications and Investcorp Holdings (Bahrain)
- Extensive issuances by financial institutions, sovereigns and corporates in each of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan and other countries in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa region.
Admissions