Dr Habib Al Mulla: the interview - Banking & Finance - ArabianBusiness.com

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The bookshelves of Dr Habib Al Mulla’s Sheikh Zayed Road office are littered with photos. One shows Al Mulla with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum; another with former US president George W Bush; then snaps alongside Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and Al Gore. But the lawyer shows me the one of which he is clearly most proud. It’s his two-year-old granddaughter, up close and grinning.

“I want to enjoy my life, and my family,” he says, smiling. “I remember speaking once to a colleague, and he was retiring at the age of 55. He said ‘Listen, I’ve worked enough, I’ve made some money, and I have two choices – either spend it on enjoyment, or on my doctors’. I prefer to spend it on myself.”

No-one could possibly accuse Al Mulla of failing to earn his family time. One of the Gulf’s most prominent lawyers, the Harvard and Cambridge graduate has spent 26 years in private practice and government.