Despite earning a Bachelor of Arts in law from a U.K. universityand passing the New York State bar in 2011Shihana Alazzaz, a Riyadh-based associate who has worked at two international firms, was not recognized as a lawyer in her home country because Saudi laws banned women from getting a law license.
But last October, Alazzaz and thousands of other Saudi women law graduates were granted the right to get licensed. Now, any woman with a domestic or international law degree can apply for a license to advocate for clients before Saudi courts and ministries. (For those with a bachelor-level degree, a few years’ stint at a law firm is also required.)
