Julia Snyder rejoins Hourani & Partners as Corporate and M&A Partner after three years in-house at PIF

Hourani & Partners has appointed Julia Snyder as a partner in its Corporate and M&A practice, effective Monday 7 September 2026. Snyder joins the firm’s Dubai office from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) in Saudi Arabia, where she was Senior Vice President in the fund’s legal function, and will advise regional and international clients on M&A, joint venture and commercial transactions.

Snyder spent six years with Hourani & Partners’ former affiliate firm and subsequently with Hourani & Partners in Dubai, joining as a senior associate in 2017 and rising to Counsel in 2019, before moving to PIF in 2023. At PIF, Snyder advised on some of the fund’s key international investments, helping to execute strategic investment decisions across complex, cross-border transactions. She returns to private practice with direct experience of how institutional clients frame an instruction and what makes an answer usable once it arrives.

Chadi Hourani, Managing Partner of Hourani & Partners, said:

“Julia’s return is a proud moment for all of us at Hourani & Partners. She was a valued colleague for six years before an impressive chapter at PIF, where she gained rare experience advising on complex international M&A from the investor’s side. She brings a blend of private practice excellence and institutional investor perspective that strengthens our partnership and the advice we give institutional clients, family businesses and multinational enterprises across the region. Above all, we are delighted to welcome Julia back home to the Hourani team.”

Institutional investors and government-related entities across the Gulf have built substantial in-house legal capability over the past decade. Preliminary analysis is done internally, and what reaches external counsel is the narrow question the client cannot resolve alone, arriving with a commercial position already forming around it.

Julia Snyder said:

“My time in-house reinforced that the most valuable external counsel understand how their advice fits into the broader transaction and what the client is trying to achieve. Clients need clear recommendations, not simply a range of legally available options, and advisers who engage early enough to help shape the question rather than simply answer it. Hourani & Partners already works that way, so the decision to return was a natural one. I am delighted to be back.”

Snyder’s appointment is the firm’s second lateral partner hire this year, following Daniel Xu, who joined from Eversheds Sutherland in January 2026 to lead the Arbitration practice.

Snyder joins the team led by Salim Sader, Partner and Head of Corporate and M&A, which advises on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and corporate restructurings across the Middle East.

Salim Sader, Partner and Head of Corporate and M&A at Hourani & Partners, said:

“ I’m very happy to welcome Julia back to the firm. She brings real depth and experience to our M&A practice where we continue to see significant growth, as well as the seniority and judgment to lead some of our most important client relationships. Just as importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing her work with our teams again and to the experience and perspective she will bring to the next generation of lawyers.”

Before moving to Riyadh in 2017, Snyder practiced at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in New York, Charltons Law in Hong Kong and Bingham McCutchen LLP in Los Angeles. She holds a Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School and a Master in Economic Law and Globalization from Sciences Po and is admitted to practice in California.

Snyder’s return continues a sustained period of investment in the firm’s partnership. Over the past two years, Hourani & Partners has added senior lateral hires across Banking and Finance, Litigation, Arbitration and now Corporate and M&A, drawn from leading international practices and, in Snyder’s case, from one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. The firm’s proposition, combining international law firm standards with deep regional insight, continues to attract senior talent to the region and further strengthens the depth and breadth of expertise available to clients across the Middle East.