Iraq Dealmeister's Thoughts on Law, Life
After helping to put together a $1.25 billion deal for a national mobile telecommunications license in Iraq earlier this year, attorney Abdullah Mutawi, who heads the international telecommunications group at Trowers & Hamlins, took a few minutes to reflect on his life and practice.
One of his best experiences, he tells the London Times, which named him its “Lawyer of the Week,” was negotiating a deal, as an associate, against a partner from another firm in a heated closed-door session. After 20 hours, he recounts, “all points were conceded in my client’s favour.” The worst, he says, was touring a hospital ward near Baghdad as a volunteer, as part of an investigative team and, among other incidents, interviewing an 8-year-old girl who had had an appendectomy without anesthesia.
Asked about the best advice he had ever received, Mutawi credited his grandfather, who advised him, at age 10, to “listen more and talk less.”
