About

Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC), a developer and manager of 11 commercial, logistics, community and leisure ports, has a team of five lawyers, led by general counsel Emil Pellicer, to assist it with the continued development of its operations. The team is integral to both the legal and the commercial security of the import and export hub of the region. To maintain efficiency while the company is growing, the team standardised internal documentation of commercial deals while sharing knowledge of legal processes with the wider business. Increasingly embedding themselves into the business units, the legal team is praised for increase efficiency in the company’s operation. This same efficiency has been evident in the legal function itself, allowing the legal team to maintain its streamlined size while bringing more matters in-house during ADPC’s recent period of substantial growth. In recent years ADPC has opened a number of notable operations: in 2012 the Khalifa Port began its operation, and the development of the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi was completed. These megaprojects would not have been possible without a high level of interaction between the legal and business units, built over years of collaboration. Increased contractual consistency and stronger communication between commercial and legal teams has, says Pellicer, ‘imparted a deep understanding of the company’s various businesses upon the legal team, which in turn has increased the value we add to the company’.