01Who we are

A private structuring firm.

K3 designs the structures that ownership, succession and transactions rest on, and sees each one through to completion.

We work with families, principals and businesses with interests in the United Arab Emirates, on matters where the structure carries real weight: how assets are held, how they pass between generations, how a transaction is built and how it is financed.

One firm. The whole structure.

Most structures are built in pieces. Counsel drafts one part, a bank finances another, and the client is left to make them fit. K3 designs the structure as one, brings in each specialist and counterparty it needs, and stays accountable for how the parts hold together.

02 · The bridge

Turn the K over, and it becomes a bridge.

A bridge is a structure built to carry weight across a gap. That is the work. K3 carries a business into the right ownership structure, a family’s wealth across a generation, and a transaction from first terms to completion.

How the work holds together

Every structure relies on others to stand: the banks and lenders that finance it, the counsel who document it, the counterparties across the table. Bridging is how K3 works. We bring those relationships into each mandate at principal level and carry the structure across every party it depends on. The client deals with one firm, from the first conversation to completion.

03How we work

Partner-led. One accountable firm.

  1. Understand

    The assets, the people, the objectives and the constraints, before any structure is drawn.

  2. Design

    One structure, designed as a whole, with legal, tax and audit input where each is needed.

  3. Complete

    K3 leads the structure to completion and coordinates every bank, specialist and counterparty involved.

Principles

  1. 01

    Partner-led

    Every mandate is led by a partner, from the first conversation to completion.

  2. 02

    One relationship

    Specialists work under K3’s direction. The client holds a single relationship.

  3. 03

    Discretion

    Client names and matters are never disclosed.

  4. 04

    Defined mandates

    Scope, outcome and terms are agreed before work begins.

Leadership

Malek Kassem

Founder & Managing Partner

Malek Kassem is the Founder and Managing Partner of K3, a UAE structuring firm. K3 works with families, founders and investors across corporate, estate, deal and financial structuring.

He brings more than a decade across law, government and the private sector in the Gulf, most of it in the UAE. Before founding K3, he spent six years with CVML, the Paris-founded independent corporate law firm. He joined as Director – Corporate and Commercial and went on to become Head of Corporate Structuring and Investments, with a practice centred on foreign investment, corporate structuring and implementation.

Before CVML, he spent nearly four years with the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ), rising from Associate to Manager. He began his career in Saudi Arabia as a Project Analyst with Saudi Binladin Group.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Essex and a BA in Economics from the Lebanese American University, and has completed a Business Law programme with Cornell University. He is a Qualified Negotiator of the Schranner Negotiation Institute and works in Arabic, English and French.

Specialist bench

K3 works with a bench of legal counsel, tax specialists and auditors, engaged under K3’s direction on each mandate.

Engagements begin with a private conversation.

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