Prior to establishing his own law firm and entering real estate, Saeed served as a State Attorney, and after completing his doctorate in law at the University of Queensland and serving as the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court and the Juvenile Court, was appointed to the position of Attorney General of the Republic of Maldives.

As the Attorney General, Saeed served as the chief legal advisor to the Maldivian government and led a long series of reforms to overhaul and transform the country into a functional liberal democracy.

[citation needed] These reforms took inspiration from the legal systems of modern Western democracies while maintaining local and Islamic distinctives.

In the country’s first ever multiparty democratic election,[4] Saeed contested as an independent candidate and came third on an agenda of clean, transparent governance and reform.

In 1988 he joined a pre-university program at the Islamic University of Malaysia, where he spent initial two years learning the English language before beginning legal education.

He introduced sentencing guidelines, computerized the country’s 25-year-old criminal records, and created the first ever self-funded medical insurance scheme for judges.

The Plan introduced a modern Penal Code in accord with classic Islamic law and local custom while, to some extent, complying with Western and international norms.

Saeed spearheaded the establishment of the Judicial Service Commission (as opposed to the President and the Justice Minister) to oversee judges.

Saeed also discarded the old rules requiring government written consent for citizens to bring legal action against the state in civil matters.

Seeing widespread domestic and international support for the reforms Saeed was introducing, several cabinet ministers who had been working in the country’s dictatorial setup, jumped onto the reformist bandwagon.