At Orchestrating Identity's Beyond Compliance Breakfast on 29th October, 25+ legal practitioners gathered to discuss the problems, solutions, and technologies facing the compliance industry across the GCC.
Compliance as friction and cost
Legal service providers see client onboarding as an operational drag. Onboarding can take weeks or months, delaying billing and choking cash flow - corporate onboarding cycles regularly exceed 60–100 days in some markets. Clients repeatedly supply KYC documents to different departments with little visibility of progress, and cultural resistance in the Gulf means clients often view KYC as intrusive.
As one consultancy firm summarised: the experience of being onboarded by a law firm involves endless Excel sheets, multiple portals, repeated information, and then it disappears into a black hole.
Compliance as an opportunity for trust
Onboarding is the first touchpoint in a client relationship. Handled well, it builds trust; handled poorly, it signals inefficiency. Legal firms want to transform onboarding from a regulatory obligation to a relationship-building moment that signals transparency, professionalism, and respect for data sensitivity.
Navigating evolving regulatory expectations
Across the GCC, regulators in DIFC, ADGM, and other jurisdictions are intensifying audits and enhancing requirements. The consensus was clear: technology should not only digitise compliance but strengthen alignment with regulatory intent - enabling firms to demonstrate readiness, transparency, and consistent governance.
Technology requirements
Firms are seeking orchestration, not just automation: single client records shared across teams, end-to-end transparency, audit-ready reporting at the click of a button, secure data management, interoperability across systems, and evolving compliance logic that updates as regulation changes.
The two-year horizon
Participants expect slow regulatory reform but fast tech evolution. Digital ID momentum via national systems like UAE Pass will accelerate, persistent fragmentation across jurisdictions will keep workflows complex, and technology's opportunity is to bridge that gap.