Isabella Ma is the Head of the China Desk at Ahmed Essa Al-Sulaiti Law Firm. In this role, she leads the Firm's strategic efforts to serve Chinese enterprises operating in Qatar and the broader GCC region, acting as the primary bridge between Chinese clients and the Firm's legal experts to ensure seamless communication, cultural understanding and commercially focused legal solutions.
Isabella brings a distinctive combination of experience spanning international law research, in-house counsel roles with major multinational companies and private legal practice. Prior to joining the Firm, she served as Senior Legal Counsel for a large Chinese state-owned enterprise in the Middle East, where she managed complex legal and dispute resolution matters across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. In this capacity, she successfully handled over 20 high-value arbitration and litigation cases.
Her practice extends to regulatory compliance, corporate governance and cross-border transactions across the region. At a Qatar-based technology company, she provided legal counsel on e-commerce, digital payments, data protection and corporate compliance matters. Earlier in her career, she practiced as a litigation associate at law firms in China and gained investment management experience at a leading Chinese securities firm, where she contributed to fund evaluation and risk assessment.
In addition to her legal practice, Isabella is actively engaged in legal research and policy development. She serves as a Research Assistant with the Qatar WTO Chair Programme and as a Research Fellow with the Industrial Policy for Digital Development (IPDD) Project, where she contributes to research on international trade, digital development, sustainability and economic governance.
