Clifford Chance LLP
Clifford Chance LLP is one of the longest-standing members of the international legal community operating out of the United Arab Emirates. The firm’s first office in the region opened in 1975 in Sharjah and it now has over 75 lawyers (11 of whom are partners) based in Dubai.
Earlier this year Clifford Chance announced that it had applied for a licence to open an office in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, thus highlighting the firm’s commitment to the MENA region as a whole. Lawyers from the firm feature 17 times on the following pages, highlighting the firm’s strength across the corporate, finance and dispute resolution areas.
Robin Abraham perhaps best encapsulates the firm’s presence in the region with appearances in the banking, Islamic finance, project finance and oil and gas chapters. Earlier this year Abraham led the team advising on the establishment of a shariah-compliant fund and debt raising for United Development Company in Qatar. Peter Avery is another strong performer in our findings and features in the project finance and banking chapters alongside Abraham. Avery comes recommended as “great for lending work”, both secured and unsecured, and has acted on a number of deals throughout Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. Debashis Dey received more recommendations than any other practitioner in the capital markets chapter with respondents to our survey praising him as “a guru for debt capital markets”. Dey also features prominently in the Islamic finance chapter where he is joined by Qudeer Latif, a “go-to guy” and head of the firm’s Middle Eastern Islamic finance practice. Among other matters Latif worked on the US$9.8 billion Rabigh project financing in Saudi Arabia. Malcolm Turner also appears on a number of occasions with strong performances in the banking and project finance chapters. Turner has a focus on the financing of infrastructure projects and comes recommended as a “real star”. Ian Hunter “knows his way around the local market” and appears in the capital markets and merger & acquisition chapters. On the M&A front he works on behalf of investment banks and major corporate clients. He is joined in the chapter by the “top-notch” Simon Clinton, whose experience spans the aerospace and defence, telecoms, energy and retail sectors.
Graham Lovett appears in the arbitration, commercial litigation and insurance & reinsurance chapters, putting in a strong performance in all three. Lovett is currently managing partner of the Dubai office and rated as a “class act” and “an expert” on disputes within the insurance, finance and banking industries.