K&L Gates

The Firm: K&L Gates’ Dubai office, established in 2009, supports clients doing business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and beyond, by helping them meet their legal and corporate, commercial and regulatory needs in pursuit of their key objectives. Our Dubai-based lawyers provide advice on all aspects of onshore UAE law and practice, as well as the laws and regulations applicable in the UAE freezones, including the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Global Market. Our legal team comprises civil and common law qualified lawyers, with full bilingual English/Arabic capability, meaning we can seamlessly advise clients across a wide variety of situations.

Our Dubai office focuses on litigation and dispute resolution (including arbitration), employment and labour law, a broad spectrum of commercial and corporate matters (including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture capital investments), capital markets, investment funds, financial services regulatory advice and banking and finance. The office also works closely with our firmwide Islamic finance and investment group.

K&L Gates is an integrated, international law firm with more than 48 offices located on five continents. Through our global network of offices and practice areas, we assist our clients with their most complex issues offering local market knowledge and access to both national and international capabilities.

Main areas of practice

Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Our Litigation and Dispute Resolution lawyers based in Dubai are trained and experienced in international dispute resolution techniques and regularly advise and represent regional and international corporations, as well as individuals throughout the MENA region. We are regularly called upon as counsel on major litigation matters in the UAE and high-profile cases in a wide range of industry sectors including energy, construction, hospitality, real estate, defense, insurance, international joint ventures, and investor-state disputes.

We work with clients to resolve disputes through litigation in the DIFC and local courts, as well as arbitration, mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution techniques. Our lawyers offer a wide range of services such as strategic advice, internal investigations, dispute avoidance, and cross-border enforcement issues.

Our team includes lawyers registered as advocates in the DIFC Courts. Our Dubai office also has established long-standing and solid relationships with leading locally based advocates in jurisdictions across the region and can effectively supervise and manage litigation in the onshore courts across the MENA region.

We have extensive local experience and regularly partner with colleagues in our network of fully integrated offices around the globe in order to offer our clients access to more than 800 full-range litigation specialists across multiple jurisdictions.

Employment: The Dubai Labour, Employment, and Workplace Safety team provides a full-service labour and employment law practice advising in both contentious and non-contentious matters in the MENA region. This experience includes conducting investigations into complex employment policy breaches as well as advising on compliance with the local employment regime (i.e., immigration and residency requirements), employment contracts, termination procedures, pension obligations, gratuity payments, and redundancy procedures.

We represent clients on contentious claims relating to breach of restrictive covenants, arbitrary dismissal, discrimination, unpaid dues, etc., in the DIFC courts as well as the local courts.

Corporate: Our Corporate/M&A practice in Dubai provides a full range of corporate and commercial legal services. We support our clients on matters ranging from market entry and general corporate advice to highly strategic business transactions and critical matters. Our team, consisting of civil and common law qualified lawyers, has extensive experience advising on all aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, private equity, venture capital, general corporate, licensing and restructuring matters, and commercial contracts.

We work as part of a highly integrated and collaborative global corporate team, and we deliver seamless service to clients across the Middle East region and beyond. Our Dubai-based lawyers regularly draft and negotiate arrangements and transactions, and serve as trusted advisors to Fortune Global 500, middle market, and emerging businesses as well as their investors and boards.

Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources: The lawyers in our Dubai Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources practice work closely together with colleagues across the globe to guide clients through joint ventures/collaborations, project structuring, financing and development, regulatory and policy initiatives, commercial transactions, tax matters, employment, credit trading and litigation, alternative dispute resolution and international arbitration across all areas of energy, infrastructure, and resources. Our key areas of interest include renewables (solar, wind, hydroelectric), hydrogen, oil and gas, liquified natural gas, offshore, water/desalination/wastewater treatment, maritime, transport (road and rail), as well as corporate energy sourcing and sustainability. The K&L Gates team is particularly known for its role in complex, high-value construction and infrastructure disputes, as well as projects procured traditionally and as public-private partnerships, having advised government sponsors, financiers, and sub-contractors on these in the UAE and wider MENA region.

Policy and Regulatory: K&L Gates Dubai Policy and Regulatory team has a deep understanding of the regulatory and compliance framework in the UAE, and regularly advises our domestic and international clients on complex, developing, or novel areas of the law.

Our bilingual team understands the legal text in its original language, and does not rely on translated texts to comprehend the legislator’s intent. Combined with specialist experience, our team is perfectly suited to guide our clients on strategic and critical business decisions from a compliance and practical aspect, and through a specialised yet local lens and mind-set.

Our services cover providing our clients with corporate and commercial regulatory advice, due diligence reporting and documentation, risk and compliance (including anti-money laundering related), legal searches and updates, business licensing and permit applications, operational regulatory compliance, data privacy, and environmental, social and governance matters.

Asset Management and Investment Funds: Members of the practice belong to one of the largest and most experienced global investment fund practices. We provide unique solutions for each client we serve with regard to the funding process, whether debt or equity, traditional or alternative, etc. We work with investment management and professional investor communities. We support a broad array of investment funds from regulated and mutual funds to many different types of alternative investment funds, acting for all participants in the industry including managers, investors, advisors, and brokers. With this array of experience, we can offer a full range of services to funds including structuring, regulation, advisory, marketing and offering, litigation and enforcement, fund-raising, and operations.

Intellectual Property: K&L Gates’ Intellectual Property (IP) capability in the UAE is a part of the global full-service IP practice. We work on a wide range of commercial, regulatory, data protection, privacy and security, technology transactions, and intellectual property matters, particularly in the technology, retail, luxury, sports, consumer products, and gambling sectors. Our global practice has a market reputation for trademark, design, copyright, and licensing, with expertise in cross-border counseling, registration, clearance, portfolio management, licensing, enforcement (opposition/cancellation proceedings), and disputes.

Data Protection, Privacy, and Security: Our Data Protection, Privacy, and Security practice in Dubai benefits from our global practice’s experience with various technologies and methodologies. From assessing risk to incident response, breach, and crisis counseling, our lawyers are qualified to handle any data privacy and security compliance issue. We work on a wide range of commercial, regulatory, data protection, privacy, and security transactions, focusing on a broad spectrum of data-driven projects with particular attention to their commercial and intellectual property aspects.

Dubai Managing Partner: Tony Griffiths (Managing Partner, London, Brussels, Dubai, and Doha Offices and Managing Partner, Europe and Middle East)

Offices

Europe: Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Munich, Paris. Middle East: Doha, Dubai. United States: Austin, Boston, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, Newark, Orange County, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, Wilmington. South America: Sao Paulo. Asia: Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo. Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney.