SPECIALIST PRACTICE FOCUS
Growth and Venture Capital
Private Capital Overview
Growth-stage and venture financings move fast, involve asymmetric information between founders and investors, and often set precedents that later rounds will follow. We advise both founders and investors through this stage, from seed and Series A through late-stage growth rounds.
Our work covers term sheet negotiation, preferred share structuring, convertible and SAFE instruments, board composition and protective provisions, employee incentive pools, and down-round or bridge financing mechanics.
We also advise on the governance issues that surface as a company scales - founder vesting, secondary sales, and the transition from a founder-controlled board to an institutional one.
Our transaction structuring is driven by first-principles analysis rather than conventional deal precedents alone. Instead of defaulting to familiar structures because they are market standards, we evaluate the commercial, legal, regulatory, tax, financing, and governance implications of alternative approaches to identify the structure best suited to the parties' objectives, risk allocation, and long-term strategy.
The objective is not simply to complete a transaction, but to establish an investment structure capable of accommodating future financing, governance changes, restructurings, ownership transitions and ultimately a successful exit.
Fareya Azfar
Partner
+971 56 7058483
Jade Al Araoui
Partner
+971 56 171 5276
Fund Formation
Subtitle Goes Here
We advise fund sponsors, managers and institutional investors on the full lifecycle of investment funds, from initial structuring and regulatory authorisation through to fundraising, ongoing operation, and eventual wind-down.
Construction Arbitration
Subtitle Goes Here
We resolve high-value construction and engineering disputes across the UAE and wider region - representing contractors, employers, and government bodies in EPC delay claims, de-scoping disputes, performance bond calls, and disputes under FIDIC and bespoke forms of contract.
Shareholder and Joint Venture Disputes
Subtitle Goes Here
We act for shareholders, partners and joint venture investors in disputes over governance, control, and exit - minority oppression, breach of fiduciary duty, disputed valuations, and the termination or unwinding of joint ventures.
Crises Management and Strategic Response
Subtitle Goes Here
We help clients determine what has happened, what legal obligations are engaged, which notifications are required, which communications are commercially protective, and how to preserve privilege, evidence and recovery options.
International Arbitration
Subtitle Goes Here
We will advise you through all phases of the most complex and demanding commercial disputes —advising on drafting arbitration clauses, developing dispute resolution strategies, conducting arbitration proceedings and hearings and seeking recourse in national courts when necessary, concerning enforcement of arbitration agreements, awards or provisional relief.
Cyber security and Data Breach
Subtitle Goes Here
We have been handling cases of data security breaches in the UAE for over ten years, representing, advising, and leading investigations with affected parties to ring fence, allocate, and demarcate liabilities.
From F&B multinational entities to AI firms, we have experience advising on data security issues, and navigating post breach crises relating to cross-border transfers of data, governed by varying data protection and privacy laws.
DIFC and ADGM Litigation
Subtitle Goes Here
We represent claimants and defendants in commercial, corporate and investment disputes before the DIFC and ADGM Courts. Our work commonly involves transactions structured through multiple agreements and entities, parties or assets located outside the relevant free zone, and overlapping questions of court jurisdiction, arbitration and enforcement.
Enforcement and Asset Tracing
Subtitle Goes Here
A favourable judgment or award does not by itself secure recovery. The enforceability of the decision depends on where the debtor’s assets are located, who legally owns or controls those assets, and which court has authority to order execution against them.
Party domicile, asset location and ownership are all critical considerations for ensuring that legal victories translate into commercial victories as well.
We advise clients on the enforceability of judgments before proceedings even start, assessing which jurisdictions offer practical recovery and which present obstacles that require alternative strategies or negotiated resolution.
Maritime Arbitration
Subtitle Goes Here
We also regularly act for shipowners, maritime operators and investors in disputes involving charter parties, indemnities, insurance, terminal agreements, tariffs, master service agreements, maritime liens, salvage, general average claims, and bills of lading. We have won numerous arbitrations in London and UAE, both institutional and under LMAA rules.
Early Case Assessments
Subtitle Goes Here
Disputes are ultimately a business problem, not merely a legal one. Clients must decide whether to pursue, defend, or settle a dispute often without clear visibility into cost, timeline, and realistic commercial outcome. At the heart of our strategy for legal and commercial victories winning complex is Early Case Assessment (“ECA”); a systematic approach to evaluating the strengths and weaknesses, risks, timeline, and cost of a matter. While our extensive experience means we scope work more precisely and anticipate possibilities more than non-specialists, our transdisplinary practice approach means we combine principles of the DuPont legal model with our proprietary SaaS technology to provide unparalleled assessments. The outcome places clients in a position to make a 'business choice' on whether to pursue, settle, or defend a matter.
Shipping Finance Joint Ventures
Subtitle Goes Here
We structure alternative financing for vessel acquisition, ownership, and joint ventures where conventional ship mortgage lending does not fit - working with shipowners, operators, and private capital investors on multi-entity structures with built-in governance and exit mechanics.
Multi-jurisdictional disputes
Subtitle Goes Here
Our international litigation practice is structured around managing parallel proceedings—coordinating domestic and international litigation simultaneously, navigating conflicting court orders, and leveraging parallel disputes to secure strategic advantage in settlement negotiations.
We advise clients involved in interconnected disputes, investigations and enforcement proceedings across multiple jurisdictions. These matters may involve parallel court proceedings, arbitration, insolvency processes, asset-recovery actions or applications for urgent interim relief, each governed by different procedural rules but arising from the same underlying dispute.
Related Services
OUR SERVICES
Diverse solutions tailored to your every need
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
This is the space to describe the service and explain how customers or clients can benefit from it. It’s an opportunity to add a short description that includes relevant details, like pricing, duration, location and how to book the service.
FAQs
Can I appeal the arbitration award?
An arbitral award is generally final and not “appealable” on the merits (i.e., you normally cannot appeal because you think the tribunal got the facts or law wrong). But an arbitration award can be "challenged" by making an "application to set aside" the award before the courts of the place/seat of arbitration.
How long does a typical arbitration take end-to-end?
Most rules and arbitration laws mandate that the tribunal must render its award within six months of the first hearing or its constitution, but in practice the concept of party autonomy prevails in the timeline of arbitral procedures. If both parties agree to extend the deadline of six months, it is extended until such time as the parties agree to do so, sometimes subject to permission of the scruity of arbitral institution (such as the ICC Court of Arbitration).
Can I get urgent/interim relief (injunctions, asset freezes) in arbitration?
Yes, you can obtain urgent interim relief, including injunctions and asset freezes, in arbitration. You can secure these through an Emergency Arbitrator (before the main tribunal is formed), the Arbitral Tribunal, or National Courts. However, because arbitral tribunals lack direct coercive enforcement powers against third parties (e.g., forcing a bank to freeze an account directly) we apply for interim and freezing orders in support of arbitration to the courts at the seat of arbitration or in jurisdictions where the opposing party's assets are located. We have successfully obtained worldwide freezing orders from local courts in the UAE, as well as foreign courts, such as the BVI, where we secured an order against both the defendant, the party to the arbitration, and a a third party escrow agent, from dealing with the assets referred to within the freezing order until the closure of the arbitration in Dubai.
What is arbitration and how is it different from going to court?
Arbitration is a process through which parties agree to resolve the dispute(s) between them by submitting to the final and binding decision of adjudicators, called arbitrators, appointed by them directly, or a mechanism of appointment agreed in their arbitration agreement. The scope of the disputes subject to arbitration are limited and defined in scope, by reference to a certain situation, contract, deal or transaction.
What if the defendant does not participate in the arbitration proceedings?
The arbitration continues 'in default'. The claimant will still have to prove the merits of their case, and the arbitral tribunal will be more inquisitive and demanding on the claimant. But the arbitration will continue in absentia.