Gowling WLG

The firm

An international firm with a well-established Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team operating out of offices in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The MENA partners are recognised experts in their fields and lead a team of multilingual lawyers combining international expertise with local knowledge and influence.

Areas of practice

The corporate/commercial team is led by Tim Casben with more than 20 years’ experience advising on multijurisdictional corporate/commercial matters out of London and Dubai.

The team advises local and international companies on a wide array of commercial matters which include: establishing and conducting business in Dubai, international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, franchise arrangements, employment matters and IPOs in the London markets.

Work highlights include advising a UK listed company on investment in a Dubai regional investment bank; a private client on restructuring a $85m investment in a UAE real estate project; a regional bank on a multi¬billion dollar default/restructuring proposal; Kalahari Minerals Pic on its £650m takeover by Taurus Mineral Limited; numerous international entities on structuring their entry into the UAE market; a UK listed entity on regional due diligence and structuring for a move from AIM to the Official List of the London Stock Exchange; and a Malaysian company on structuring of regional entities for listing on Bursa Malaysia, the Malaysian Stock Exchange. Other notable work in this area includes advising on the design of a brand new healthcare regime for the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi. The work went on to win a Financial Times ‘ Innovative Lawyers Award.

The firm has a full service contentious and non-contentious construction team and a commercial litigation team. Both are led by James Foster. The international contentious construction team has significant experience of resolving disputes in the UAE and the Gulf region more widely, particularly through arbitration.

The construction team has a strong focus on heavyweight domestic and international contractors and developers involved with high value infrastructure and development schemes. Notable projects on which the team has worked include Dubai International Airport, Dubai Metro 2020 extension, Dubai Mall, Abu Dhabi International Airport Midfield Terminal, Khalifa Stadium in Doha, New Doha International Airport, a regional ship repair yard project, a rolling mill project in Oman and a leading research centre project in Saudi Arabia.

The commercial litigation team has a strong focus on high-value fraud and asset tracing claims, contentious insolvency matters and contentious trust cases. It also handles registered commercial agency disputes in the UAE and wider region and other corporate/commercial dispute resolution matters.

The intellectual property team is led by Jon Parker who is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the region. The IP team advises in all aspects of intellectual property including trade mark registrations, copyright disputes, structuring and protecting rights, brand protection and strategy related.

Andrew Thomson leads the real estate team. Andrew has been in the region for nine years and advises leading institutions in the Middle East including private equity groups and a number of the emerging REITs.

Gowling WLG is an international law firm comprising the members of Gowling WLG International Limited, an English Company Limited by Guarantee, and their respective affiliates. Each member and affiliate is an autonomous and independent entity. Gowling WLG International Limited promotes, facilitates and co-ordinates the activities of its members but does not itself provide services to clients. The firm structure is explained in more detail at www.gowlingwlg.com/legal.