Watson Farley & Williams > Dubai, United Arab Emirates > Firm Profile

Watson Farley & Williams
Office 1702, Level 17, Index Tower, West Entrance
Dubai International Financial Centre
PO Box 506896
United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates > Shipping Tier 3

Watson Farley & Williams offers a ‘very experienced and responsive’ maritime practice, regularly advising major clients in the UAE and wider Middle East on complex commercial contracts, finance, corporate and dispute resolution matters. With former practice head Andrew Baird departing the firm in November 2023 to move in-house at ADNOC Logistics, Michael Savva now leads the offering and regularly represents owners and operators on a broad array of non-contentious matters, including sale and purchase, charters and contracts of employment. Senior associate Charlotte Knight is also developing an impressive transactional practice and regularly leads on ship finance negotiations. Natalie Jensen was a new arrival in March 2024.

Practice head(s):

Michael Savva

Other key lawyers:

Charlotte Knight; Natalie Jensen

Testimonials

‘Very experienced and responsive’.

‘Very commercial in approach and prompt to respond.’

Key clients

Neonautica Ships & Boats Trading LLC

National Bank of Fujairah PJSC

National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri)

ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

Astro Offshore

Tomini Shipping

Work highlights

  • Advising Neonautica Ships and Boats Trading LLC, a shipping start-up, on various corporate and commercial matters.
  • Advising a national Middle Eastern ship owner on the sale of 7 oil tankers and the purchase of 2 VLCCs.
  • Assisting a drilling operations company in connection with the sale of three mobile offshore drilling units to the drilling arm of a leading GCC based oil and gas entity.

United Arab Emirates > Banking and finance: Corporate finance (including Islamic lending) Tier 4

Noted for the breadth of their capabilities, Watson Farley & Williams is a strong choice for both conventional and Islamic financing matters. Despite a wide sector focus, the group show notable expertise on maritime and aviation-related matters, as well as a demonstrating a broad competence across a wide array of energy assets. Michael Savva leads the team and ‘gives practical advice’ on cross-border deals that includes structured finance, equity finance, leasing and project finance transactions. Senior associate Charlotte Knight and associate Stuart Bolton both come recommended for their far-reaching, technical knowledge, and understanding of the market.

Practice head(s):

Michael Savva

Other key lawyers:

Testimonials

‘The firm position the whole team across the deal not just individuals. They set a clear process to execute complex opinions in challenging jurisdictions quickly and to scale easily.’

‘Mike Savva is really engaged with the whole process and works on the individual deals. He gives practical advice and is always available to deliver before deadlines. Savva provides outstanding attention to detail and is super efficient. 

‘Michael Savva and Stuart Bolton are tremendous lawyers. They are competent, skilled, great communicators, commercially minded, and team players. ’

Key clients

National Bank of Fujairah

Work highlights

  • Advised National Bank of Fujairah on the financing for a group of 31 solar PV projects in Dubai, developed by Yellow Door Energy.
  • Advised a Middle Eastern bank in relation to the acquisition of two newbuild container vessels.
  • Advising multiple international banks on their receivables financing transactions in the football sector.

United Arab Emirates > Dispute resolution: arbitration and international litigation Tier 4

Watson Farley & Williams has expertise across a range of cases. Transport and energy disputes form the cornerstone of the practice, while the team has also seen an uptick in tech-related cases that include data and cybercrime issues. Charlotte Bijlani is 'a lawyer who gets work done on time but with high quality' and is particularly renowned for her international arbitration work. Soraya Corm-Bakhos has been kept busy handling energy and transport disputes and Thomas Whitfield has been highly active in aviation cases.

Practice head(s):

Charlotte Bijlani

Other key lawyers:

Testimonials

‘Charlotte Biljani & Thomas Whitfield provide excellent advice and responsive service’

‘This law firm provides decent quality of legal services in a timely manner reflecting their profound knowledge and experiences. Further, they are trying to be more flexible to meet client`s needs. ’

‘Charlotte Bijlani is a lawyer who gets work done on time but with high quality. In addition, she’s flexible as to meet client`s needs. ’

‘Watson Farley Williams boasts a highly exceptional dispute resolution team that is clearly very well versed in its expertise. The firm clearly invests heavily in its talent at the senior leadership level, which shines through their legal capabilities in the services they provide.’

‘ The team has extensive legal knowledge and are very well experienced and demonstrated that expertise throughout the case. Our case was handled very professionally by all means. Each step was thoroughly planned and explained to us at each stage. The teams tactical skills were very well demonstrated, they were able to draw reasonable, logical plans and conclusions and legal strategies that support our position.’

‘The team has a great deal of experience and were very dedicated, committed and responsive at all stages. One of their strengths is strategic thinking, building the case and planning ahead to resolve the case in our best interest.’

‘The WFW team have worked well with our team to understand the commercial issues around the cases they handled for us. They brought fresh insights for us, and of course, detailed technical input as it related to the jurisdictions we were enforcing in. Overall, very professional, approachable, and clear advice we could action.’

‘Charlotte Bijlani has provided excellent support to us during our case. Charlotte is supported by an excellent team, and has given excellent guidance supporting me. I take the technical excellence as read, I really value the clear way that technical advice is made actionable for the business.’

Key clients

Chinese State Construction

GASL Leasing Ireland No. 2 Limited (Genesis)

Gulf Wings

Limitless

Sahara International Petrochemical Company (SIPCHEM)

Siraj Power Holding Limited

Société Générale

Yanbu Cement Company

Fortescue Future Industries Middle East Management Limited

National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri)

Work highlights

  • Acted for Gulf Wings FZE in its claim against A&K Trading Limited before the DIFC Court of Appeal, securing a favourable judgement for the client.
  • Advised Yanbu Cement Company in a successful arbitration in relation to a challenge made to an LCIA Award in Yanbu’s favour.
  • Advised the lessor of an Airbus 319-100 commercial aircraft operated by a Russian airline/lessee in DIFC Court, English High Court and LCIA proceedings and successfully repossessed the aircraft following the imposition of Russian sanctions.

United Arab Emirates > Infrastructure and projects (including project finance)

United Arab Emirates > Insurance

Watson Farley & Williams bolstered its expertise in this area with the recent arrival of Khalid Hamed.

Dedicated to client care, industry focus and investment in our people
We are a sector specialist international law firm in the Energy, Infrastructure and Transport sectors advising on complex transactions and disputes through local knowledge and an integrated international network.

Our business exists to help our clients achieve their goals, partnering with them to meet the challenges they face today and will face tomorrow.

Our values rest on developing deep and long-lasting relationships externally and internally through respect, sharing, communication and integrity.

We strive for excellence in all that we do and view investment in our people as key to achieving our business goals and values.

Our teams are integrated across legal disciplines and offices delivering consistently high levels of service locally and in combination across borders.

History: Sector focus has been at the heart of our strategy since we opened for business in 1982.  Having started life as an asset finance boutique focussing on the maritime and aviation industries, our transport focus quickly expanded to other supply-chain led industries, most notably, renewable and conventional energy and infrastructure across these industries.

Through our offices around the world, we provide a full suite of services within our core sectors enabling us to deliver exceptional value to our clients.

Facts

  • Founded 1982
  • 200+ partners
  • 700+ lawyers
  • 19 offices

Senior Partner: George Paleokrassas
Managing Partner: Lindsey Keeble

Key Contacts
Aviation: Jim Bell, Charles Viggers
Energy: Malte Jordan, Henry Stewart
Infrastructure: Florian Kutzbach, Jose Maria Anarte
Maritime: George Macheras, George Paleokrassas
Mining & Commodities: Sumeet Malhotra, Jan Mellmann
Oil & Gas: Chris Kilburn

Photo Name Position Profile
Charlotte Bijlani photo Charlotte Bijlani Charlotte is an experienced dispute resolution lawyer with full rights of audience…
Partners : 200+
Lawyers : 700+
Offices : 19
25+ languages