My Story: From Business to Law

My life began in hotels—what a wonderful beginning! I am confident that no other industry could compare to the amazing experience of meeting and interacting with people from all nations, different demographics, and different genders. Even though I spent my entire life in the hospitality industry—from front desk to sales and marketing—becoming a business development director in just 11 years was a rapid advancement in my profession, what else could possibly impress me? What else could make my life better? For those who know me, I believe there are still more challenges ahead and much more to offer.

I chase the things I must have in order to give back if I discover that I have nothing else to offer. There's always something there, so I can't quit.I experienced this while I was in Qatar. Sometimes God has to shake your nest in order for you to fly. Above all, God granted me new, keen nails to hunt with and sharpened my wings. After the blockade between various Arab countries, I had to relocate and was no longer with my company.

and from here it started...in 2017.

I sat down to review my steps and see what I could do next. After all, I was instrumental in closing various hotel and real estate agreements for my former job in Qatar, so I wanted to see what I could do specifically to advance in this field.

MARS solutions..

Marsolutions was a company whose goal was to act as a mediator between hotel operators and owners in order to reach an agreement. Although I wasn't surprised that I was doing well in this career at initially, some deals didn't work out because some of these owners were still in the countries where they started this Blockade. Since it's my first business and I manage it myself, my dream was about to evaporate. However, God's plan was to shut down the business in 2019 and prepare for the next phase.

PGDL and Leeds Beckett University.

"Can I be a lawyer?" I asked my wife this year. We were sitting in a lovely outside cafe at one of the well-known hotels in Barsha in Dubai when she remarked, "Yes of course you can be." I was staring up at the sky when I heard the voice telling me to go, Mohamed, and follow this career. What is the shortest path, though? I am not even 34 years old. Will I become a lawyer at my age? However, something said to me in a whisper.

"what about this man (Prophet Mohammed Peace be Upon Him ?? ???? ???? ????) who held the message from Allah, the religion of Islam when he was 40 and now 1.5 billion people on this earth believe in Islam, then yes there is a hope"

It's important to note that I have an MBA from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. This institution allowed me to continue my education at Leeds Beckett University by granting me admission to the PGDL program. At Leeds Beckett University, applications must meet a number of requirements, and receiving a letter from the University of Leicester stating that I was a student there was a gateway to my current position.

It was a pleasure to learn about the common law and its history when I applied to Leedsbeckett University in 2018. I had planned to complete my studies in a year because I felt I was running out of time and needed to establish myself in the legal field as soon as possible, but I was afraid I wouldn't succeed. I believe someone who has had the opportunity to study an MBA before can be familiar with the British system, especially since I attended a British school in Cairo at the time and am well aware of it.

And guess what?

I succeeded!

In September 2019 I obtained my PGDL degree! no I have a law degree from one of the best and old universities in Law, now I can recognize myself as....?

As what?...

What else I should do?

Regretfully, you are still not accepted as a lawyer. "Mohamed," my wife said. It means that you must pursue a bar degree in the UK or Egypt, but the simplest path is to obtain one from a UK law firm. This allows you to become a UK solicitor after two years of working in various legal practices within the firm, but you still need to complete an LPC. In the UK, the most popular postgraduate degree for becoming a practicing solicitor is the Legal Practice Course. The only way to become a lawyer is to do this and work for two years in a UK law firm.

Or...

This path may be simpler because my PGDL degree has been approved by Egypt's Ministry of High Education, and I may apply to an equivalent program to earn a bar from Egypt. However, switching from English to Arabic and beginning Arabic language studies again is a challenge!

In fact, I believed that this was the burden!

Yet and ironically, the main one is that my online PGDL cannot be accepted as a degree in Egypt since they do not accept foreign degrees in this manner; instead, you must do it correctly as they said, which means I must complete the PGDL full-time, not part-time, and not online! What a mystery! Is it going to disappear now that everything I did was an illusion?

I tried to apply to every law firm in the UK for training solicitors, you name it, and I was rejected. That wasn't the only thing that worried me, though; my biggest worry is that I will have to leave my family in the UAE and travel to the UK for two years to complete my training and become qualified as a training solicitor. Having the British bar will be a huge step towards my career goals, but this only occurs in the UK, so I can't get it from the UAE. I must therefore continue down this path, which I believe was simpler than having to redo my Arabic coursework, and I'm not sure how many topics I'll need to pass the Egyptian bar all at once! I can finally see the end of the tunnel because one of the big law firms in the UAE was qualified to provide training contracts here, meaning I don't have to fly to the UK.

After applying to this law firm three times, passing all the interviews, and passing the Watson Glasser test, I was unsuccessful. I believe they were looking for someone younger than me who could give them orders, and I believe that being 35 years old in this role could be a burden to some Partners my own age. I didn't stop, though, and I kept looking, but this door never opened. Fortunately thank God, something better happened.

The Pandemic!

And my savior is on the way! Yes, I consider it the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and my savior. I know that many of the readers would now think that this man is insane. I can affirm that all I have done is above the realm of insanity and has nothing to do with reason or psychological stability. But ultimately, what matters most is God's will; I refer to this as a miracle. Since all educational institutions switched from full-time to online instruction at that period, the ministry of high education issued a decree stating that all online degrees would be accepted for equivalency, which was a miracle that came across my path and paved the road for my desire! Whoa, that's fantastic news!

10 subjects!

The ministry of high education received my application and after three month they provided me a letter that with the acceptance of your degree, and in order to pass the Bar exam you have to take 10 subjects from the Law university!.

Just to mention that, some of the subjects were Sharia (Islamic Sharia) one of the hardest yet amusing studies I have ever had, these 4 subjects provided me with a deep knowledge of Islamic religion, despite that I wanted to finish those 10 subjects to attain to my goals, but I can stop being amused about what I really was going to miss if I had the chance to be selected in one of the UK law firms for a training solicitor.

Everything happens for a reason, and I believe that God wanted me to understand both common and civil law, especially Egyptian civil law, which is applied in all Arab nations and Egyptian lawyers consistently achieve professional success. In fact, they are occasionally seconded to share some of their knowledge with judges and law firms in other Arab jurisdictions. I graduated from college in July 2020!

I still haven't received the exam results, though. It's important to note that Jehad, one of the associates on the faculty of law admission team, is among the best persons I have ever met., and he was my pillar of support. I live in the United Arab Emirates, and before I started my studies, he helped me understand the schedule and even gave me advice on what to focus on in each subject. In addition, he was able to send me notes via WhatsApp or emails. He was always by my side, and he was the unseen soldier in all of my battles. His name is Jihad.

In September 2020, specifically on September 9th, Jihad gave me my final marks; it was he who send me the news of my outstanding grades! They are indeed amazing, which is why I say that. It seemed unbelievable to me that I received those grades at one of the most challenging faculties in Egyptian education history—some students stay in the faculty for almost ten years! And thankfully, I completed nearly the entire course in a single year! and I was able to achieve success in them with good scores, thank God. I am very proud of myself for doing it, and I am so grateful to God.

The month of September 2020 was a gateway to paradise. With an MBA from the University of Leicester, a PGDL from Leeds, a business bachelor's degree from Cairo University, and a law bachelor's degree from Cairo University, I finally stepped through the door of my aspirations. Praise be to Allah, who is supreme! I wouldn't ask for more; it's time to start practicing law. I spent two years working remotely as a training lawyer in a leading law firm in Egypt, where I oversaw the firm's real estate and hospitality divisions.

I have obtained my bar certificate and am now recognized as an Egyptian qualified lawyer. Additionally, I worked for two years as an associate in a litigation law firm in the United Arab Emirates with the Association of Khodeir and Partners in Egypt, which also specializes in real estate. I believe I have been familiar with hospitality and real estate laws for four years, and now I feel as though I am missing a move that I am looking forward to, working for myself. No one knows the hospitality industry as well as I do, I am commercially and legally oriented, I am unique, I am special in this field, I can excel my own, I will make it!

Darwish Legal Consultants.

I launched Darwish Legal Consultants, a legal consultancy firm, in September 2023. My current areas of expertise include real estate and hospitality. With my credentials, I have demonstrated to the people I worked with before that I am not only a businessman but also that I will legally protect your property. Thank God, the last seven years have been both difficult and magical. I discovered that as long as you believe in yourself and are around by people who can encourage you and support you through hardship and adversity, you will succeed. There are no boundaries to a person's dreams or aspirations. There is always a man's will, and the will must be stronger than the skill.

"Whatever the mind of the man can conceive and believe it can achieve"

Read my recently released book, The Art of Mediation: The Key to Resolving Disputes in the Hospitality Industry. It summarizes the conflicts I encountered during my 15 years in the hospitality industry and explains how mediation could be a tool to resolve disputes amicably.

click here to order a copy of the book.

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