In the early 2010s, Saudi Arabia had only a handful of female lawyers. Today, this number has grown to over a thousand. The Law Firm of Nasreen Alissa, established in 2018, is one of the few law firms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is led by a Saudi female lawyer specializing in corporate and commercial law.

In the words of Nasreen,
“We are in the business of legal service because we love the science of law and the excitement on providing solutions to our client’s legal problem through research, analysis, and creative thinking,”

Born in the United Kingdom, Nasreen grew up with four brothers. “Around the end of 1980s, women didn’t have many rights, unlike today. I wanted to study law and became a lawyer so I can serve my country and help with empowering women and providing justice.” Nasreen Alissa went on to complete LLB from Nottingham Law School, BA in Sociology from the University of British Columbia, LLM from City University as well as LPC from City University. One of the few female lawyers to bring 5 years of international experience, Nasreen’s way of giving back to the women of her country did not stop there.

“In 2016, I made Know Your Rights Mobile application. The first legal application to empower women in Saudi Arabia.”Being tech driven and innovative, Nasreen founded and developed KnowYourRights, a free and unique mobile application aimed at empowering Saudi women, and helping them understand their rights, so they can protect themselves against problems that could befall them owing to ignorance of the law. The application provides free legal information and consultations and invariably helps women to be independent and powered with knowledge of their own rights. The application is the first of its kind not only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but even worldwide. Within three months of its launch, it had over 50,000 users! She considers this her biggest achievement and does not plan to change the application’s free service provision for the times to come. In addition to this, Nasreen even goes a step forward and is known to handle many pro bono cases of women who reach out to her through the app.

Nasreen has seen much recognition come her way through her journey. She won the best female lawyer of the year 2022 by Arabian Business KSA Women Excellence awards. In 2019, Google made a documentary about Nasreen Alissa’s journey and her application.

Recently, Nasreen launched a platform called Fintech Buddy Saudi Arabia, which is again one of its kind in the KSA. The platform is a one-stop platform that provides legal, licensing, and financial advice services, helping startups and international foreign companies with their fintech license application requirements.

Moving from strength to strength is what Nasreen’s journey looks like. But all of this comes with its own set of challenges. The need to constantly prove herself and fight ingrained gender barriers in her field including what is written in the passages of law are her biggest trials. But as we get to know Nasreen, we know that she will turn law into a tool that takes many women of Saudi Arabia towards the path of achieving justice and freedom.