MANAMA: Dr Saud Al Ammari Law Firm in association with Blake, Cassels and Graydon (Blakes), a business law firm, has announced that Graham McLeod, a Blakes partner based in its Al Khobar and Bahrain offices, is the new office managing partner of Blakes Middle East offices.

Mr McLeod takes over the role from Scott Burrell, who became office managing partner in 2011. Mr Burrell has relocated to the Blakes Vancouver office.

A statement said Mr McLeod is a highly regarded projects lawyer with focus on corporate/commercial as well as infrastructure and procurement transactions and a particular emphasis on the development and implementation of large-scale industrial and public-private partnership projects, areas of growth in the Middle East. He has acted on a broad range of projects in sectors such as health care, transportation, petrochemicals, water and wastewater, solid waste disposal and information technology systems.