Sectors & practice areas

Licensing is only the beginning — staying licensed is the real discipline. We guide banks, exchange houses and financial institutions from first authorization through full operational readiness. Our work spans regulatory applications and approvals, governance and board frameworks, AML and financial-crime compliance, and the contractual foundations that support the balance sheet. With proven experience taking private banks in this jurisdiction from application to operating license, we advise with a regulator-aligned perspective rather than a textbook approach.

We protect the assets that drive your business. We advise on intellectual property protection, licensing and platform structures, and defensible cross-border data use. Our expertise spans regulatory approvals, content and telecom obligations, cybersecurity exposure, and the commercial contracts that carry your technology — ensuring growth never exceeds the permissions beneath it.

Projects fail in three places: title, the contract, and the delay. We advise across the full development lifecycle — land acquisition and title, JV and development structures, construction and consultancy contracts, off-plan and escrow compliance, authority approvals, and the claims that follow. Our expertise is strongest in mixed-use developments, where residential, retail and hospitality components each carry distinct risks and must be documented with precision.

Operator templates protect operators — not owners. We advise owners and developers on hotel management and franchise agreements with global luxury brands, covering fees, performance tests, termination rights, territorial protection, and the owner's real levers of control. Our work extends to licensing, F&B and entertainment permits, supplier and service agreements, and brand and guest-facing exposure. With deep experience negotiating against major operators, we know which provisions genuinely move.

Long-horizon assets demand contracts that outlast the politics. We advise on concessions and permits, EPC and O&M contracts, project-finance structures, environmental and regulatory obligations, and the stakeholder and offtake arrangements that determine whether a project reaches completion. Our expertise lies in allocating risk across the project lifecycle — including how that risk is ultimately borne when completion does not arrive.

Family enterprises rarely fail because of the market — they fail in the second generation. We advise families on the governance that keeps them aligned around a business: ownership and holding structures, constitutions and shareholder agreements, boards and family councils, succession and transfer mechanics, and dispute protocols agreed before they are needed. Our expertise spans the full spectrum of family enterprise, building governance that allows a business to outlive its founder.

Discretion is the service. We advise principals and their families on the private side of their affairs — asset protection and holding structures, wills, trusts and foundations, cross-border estate planning, and confidential matters that never appear anywhere else. Our expertise is grounded in in-house experience with family offices and private wealth, acting as counsel that holds the full picture rather than a single instruction.

Most commercial risk is created at formation and paid for years later. We advise on structuring and incorporation across mainland, free-zone and offshore jurisdictions, on the commercial contracts that run the business, and on shareholding, partnerships, distribution, agency and day-to-day governance. Our expertise lies in building entities fit for the transactions they will actually undertake.

Deals are won or lost in what is uncovered before signing. We advise on buy-side and sell-side transactions end-to-end — structuring, due diligence, share-purchase and shareholder arrangements, warranties, indemnities and price mechanics, regulatory approvals, and completion and integration. Our expertise protects the deal itself: what is disclosed, what is warranted, and what happens when the business behaves differently after closing.

Security only matters at enforcement. We advise lenders and borrowers on facility agreements, syndicated and bilateral lending, security packages and their perfection across jurisdictions, guarantees, restructurings and workouts, and the regulatory obligations governing fund flows. Our expertise is in drafting with the enforcement scenario in view — not merely the drawdown.

Workforce risk is quiet until it isn't. We advise employers on contracts and handbooks, secondments and mobility, end-of-service and termination, restrictive covenants, and Wage Protection, Emiratization and free-zone compliance. We act in investigations, exits and MOHRE claims when they arise. Our expertise spans both sides of the relationship, including advising senior executives on the terms of their engagement and departure.

The first decision in a dispute is whether to have one. We assess exposure at the outset, then take the route that serves the client's real objective — negotiated settlement, mediation, arbitration under major institutional rules, or proceedings before local and offshore courts. We run matters for outcome and cost, keeping the client's business and reputation intact throughout.

These matters are legal in form and personal in substance. We advise on marriage and its contracts, separation and divorce, custody and guardianship, maintenance, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign orders — including how personal-status law interacts with the civil regime. Our expertise is closely coordinated with our succession practice, ensuring a personal matter does not fracture the wider structure.