Interview with: Areen Jayousi, Partner

What has been your greatest achievement, in a professional and personal capacity?

My greatest achievement in a professional capacity is without a doubt having been made Partner of a prominent local law firm in my early thirties. My decision to leave a more than comfortable existence in an in-house position turned out to be the best professional decision I have made.

My greatest personal achievement, one that I’m immensely proud of is having the opportunity to raise my three beautiful children, Khaldoun, Qusai and Mariam.

What do you do differently from your peers in the industry?

The firm is unique in that we specialise in dispute resolution only. With our sole focus on the effective resolution of complex UAE disputes, we train our lawyers extensively in both civil as well as common law principles. By doing so our lawyers are not simply bilingual, but also adept at providing advice and legal analysis from both a common & civil law perspective.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

My advice to my younger self would be not to over complicate things. I have found that breaking complex issues down to their bare bones can be a very effective way to deal with issues, no matter how complex they first seem to be. I have learnt that taking ones time to deal with the complexity of the issues is the right way to go as opposed to diving right into the deep end.

Can you give me a practical example of how you helped a client add value to the business?

Having assisted many developers in the UAE, I recently revised the entire suite of contractual documents for a large semi-government real estate developer. With recent legislative changes and a tough real estate market as a back drop, amendments to their existing contracts were imperative.  Subsequent to the amendments being made, the client provided the firm with a certificate of appreciation, stating that in-house efficiency had greatly improved as well as their internal collection management process as a direct result of the amendments made to their contractual documents.

Within your sector, what do you think will be the biggest challenge for clients over the next 12 months?

Given the current market trends and difficulties in relation to the economy, we are currently witnessing a higher number of disputes, with some major companies now contemplating high profile litigation. The biggest challenge going forward will be to ensure that clients are well advised in relation to their legal options and not solely litigious. It will be even more important going forward for clients to correctly study all possible amicable resolutions prior to filing claims.