Paulina Zalewska is a seasoned legal professional with extensive experience advising on corporate, commercial, and regulatory matters across the Middle East and international jurisdictions. As Legal Director at Sovereign Middle East, she leads the regional legal function, supporting complex cross-border structures, corporate governance frameworks, and regulatory compliance for a diverse portfolio of clients.
Paulina has extensive experience in corporate and commercial advisory, supporting businesses across their full lifecycle – from market entry and structuring to ongoing operations and strategic transactions. She advises on shareholder arrangements, joint ventures, commercial contracts, and cross-border business models, ensuring alignment with local regulatory frameworks while safeguarding clients’ commercial objectives. Her work often involves close interaction with senior management and stakeholders to structure practical, risk-balanced solutions in dynamic and highly regulated environments.
With a strong background in corporate services, she has deep expertise in navigating regulatory environments in jurisdictions such as the UAE (mainland, DIFC, and ADGM), Qatar, KSA, Bahrain, Oman and other regional hubs, with a focus on ensuring legal robustness while enabling commercial flexibility.
She also brings solid experience in mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, project financing, contract negotiations, as well as real estate and construction projects, advising on transaction structuring, risk identification, and execution across multiple jurisdictions. Her work includes supporting clients from initial structuring and due diligence to negotiation and completion.
Paulina is recognized for her pragmatic, solutions-driven approach and her ability to align legal strategy with business objectives. She regularly advises senior stakeholders on risk management, dispute mitigation, and governance best practices.
