Susan Bastress is the Managing Partner of Patton Boggs’ Doha office. Ms. Bastress advises multinational companies on cross-border, transactional business issues, providing strategic legal counsel. She leverages an extensive background in commercial transactions, real estate, infrastructure development and alternative dispute resolution in her work for architectural, hospitality and infrastructure development firms. Much of her work focuses on multinational companies seeking advice and counsel on achieving success in the Middle East region. Her understanding of the political climate in the Middle East, derived from her work on behalf of other sovereign clients of the firm, significantly augments her ability to provide sound advice and counsel to such clients. In particular, Ms. Bastress has advised multinational development companies focused on hotel and other hospitality projects.
Representative clients have included the embassies of foreign governments, an international media company, a national retail chain, the institutional investment arm of a foreign government, and the housing finance authority of a U.S. territory. Ms. Bastress offers substantial experience in alternative dispute resolution, and founded the Virgin Islands Mediation Service (VIMS), personally mediating more than 150 civil cases involving environmental tort liability, hurricane-related claims in construction disputes, and personal injury. Ms. Bastress has also served on the panels of the American Arbitration Association and JAMS, in which capacity she has arbitrated and mediated complex construction disputes.
In 2003, Ms. Bastress established Patton Boggs’ Doha office, serving as its initial managing partner. Ms. Bastress also has the distinction of being the first non-Qatari attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Qatar.
