Portability in Riyadh is two questions, answered from different papers. The first is whether the client will instruct the new office. The second is whether the partner is allowed to ask. The Code of Law Practice puts the license on the firm, the professional company, or the branch. Article 51 tells each form what work it may do. A client who signed an engagement with the current office has a contract with that office. A lateral carries the relationship only when the client signs a new engagement with the new office, and only for work the new office’s license actually covers. A branch that receives a Saudi-court dispute has a license that stops at Article 51(2). The pleading goes to a Saudi lawyer on the practicing list, at the new firm or beside it.
The non-compete depends on who the partner is in law. Article 50 of the Labor Law, on the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development’s current consolidation, defines the employment contract as work under the employer’s management or supervision in return for a wage. Article 83 then allows a post-contract condition where that work let the worker learn the employer’s clients. The condition has to be in writing. It has to be specific as to time, place and type of work. It has to protect a legitimate interest. Its duration must not exceed two years from the end of the relationship. A separate limb covers business secrets, and that limb has the writing and specificity conditions. The employer may sue within one year from discovering the breach. Royal Decree No. M/44, which ILO NATLEX records as adopted on 23 August 2024 and in force on 25 February 2025, is the amending decree. The HRSD consolidation now in front of a reader is the text that carries Article 83 in those words. The decree is the date of the notice reform. Article 83’s two-year cap is the rule the consolidation states.
Article 83 binds a worker. A person who owns a profit share in the professional company, and who is party to the company contract, is on that contract and on the professional-companies regime the Code points to in Article 50(1). The hiring committee reads the company contract for the restrictive clauses, the retirement of a share, and any garden-leave analogue the shareholders actually signed. The two-year statutory cap is the Labor Law cap for a worker. Writing it onto a shareholder as if Article 83 had already been held to govern every Riyadh partner is a different legal conclusion, and it is one the brief should take from Saudi counsel on the deed in hand.
A nominated representing partner carries a third instrument. Article 45(4) requires residence of at least 180 days a year. Decision 186, Article V, requires ten years’ experience including three after the license. Article VI lets the office replace a partner who cannot reside, and the office still has to meet the 180 days. A lateral hired to be one of those two names is a license condition of the office, with a start date the Ministry’s list will eventually show. A lateral hired as a non-Saudi consultant under Article 41 is an employee with a bar on pleading. Decision 186, Article XXI, cancels that consultant’s registration 30 days after the contract ends unless another licensee files a new employment contract to continue it. The book, the badge, and the right to speak in court are three different moves.
Notice, for a person who is a worker, is the resignation article. Article 74 of the consolidation lists resignation as its own ground for ending the contract. Article 79 bis treats the resignation as accepted if 30 days pass with no response. The employer may postpone acceptance for up to 60 days when the work requires it, with a written explanation given to the worker before those 30 days end. The postponement runs from the date of that explanation. The worker may withdraw the request within 7 days unless the employer has already accepted it. The request may not name a deferred resignation date. The contract stays in force through the whole of that period, and both sides keep their obligations. Article 78, which is the notice article’s companion, allows an employer who has given notice to exempt the worker from attending while treating service as continuous and paying the wage. That is the paid bridge on an employer’s notice. On a resignation, the bridge is the 30 days, extended up to 60 when the employer writes the reasons in time.
Indefinite-term contracts have a second clock, and it is the one Article 75 states after Royal Decree No. M/44. Where the wage is paid monthly, the worker who ends the contract gives at least 30 days’ written notice, and the employer who ends it gives at least 60. Where the wage is not paid monthly, either side gives at least 30 days. Article 55(1) says a fixed-term contract the parties keep performing is treated as renewed indefinitely, subject to Article 37 for non-Saudis. A non-Saudi lawyer on a fixed term is the ordinary case in a Riyadh office. The early exit on that contract is the resignation path in Articles 74 and 79 bis. An early break that is an illegitimate termination is priced by Article 77: the wage for the remaining term of a fixed-term contract, and in any event at least two months’ wage. Article 76 prices a missed Article 75 notice as the wage for the notice, unless the parties agree otherwise. Article 85, on a resignation, sets the end-of-service fraction at one-third once continuous service is at least two years and not more than five, two-thirds when service is above five and under ten, and the full award at ten years. Article 84 is the underlying award: half a month’s wage per year for the first five years, and one month per year after that, on the last wage.
The scorecard, before any name is discussed, is short.
- License form. Professional company, branch, Saudi firm, or temporary project license. Article 51 decides which files can move with the person and which files need a Saudi advocate’s name.
- Employing paper. Wage contract under Article 50 of the Labor Law, professional-company contract, or home-partnership deed. Article 83 is the worker’s non-compete. The company contract is the shareholder’s.
- Representing-partner slot. Whether the seat is one of the two names who must reside 180 days, with ten years’ experience including three after the license. A coverage plan from Dubai leaves that condition on the office.
- Consultant register. A non-Saudi who will advise and will not plead needs Article 41 registration. The registration follows the employment contract and ends when that contract ends.
- Client paper. Which matters are in an engagement that names the current office. Those matters move when the client signs again, and when the new form is allowed to do the work.
- Localization. The 70 percent second stage in the Resolution 212607 guide, and the SAR 5,500 social-insurance wage that lets a Saudi bachelor’s-holder count. A partner hire that leaves the ratio short is a license problem for the office, with a start date attached.
The cross-jurisdiction note on how other markets write the same covenant is partner non-competes and garden leave by jurisdiction. The Riyadh rule for a worker is Article 83, in the HRSD consolidation, with the two-year cap and the one-year claim window.
