Latham & Watkins LLP

The firm: Latham & Watkins is a leading international law firm serving multinational companies, state-owned enterprises, investment banks, private equity funds, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, governments and other organisations. The firm’s global platform spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, and consists of internationally recognised practices across a wide spectrum of transactional, litigation, corporate and regulatory areas. Latham lawyers offer unrivalled legal resources and strategic commercial thinking to provide clients with innovative solutions to complex business and legal matters.

Latham lawyers have been advising some of the most active strategic and financial dealmakers in the Middle East for over 20 years. The firm’s Middle East offices in Dubai and Riyadh are staffed with approximately 30 English, US and regionally qualified lawyers with Arabic, English, French and other language capabilities. The Middle East practice combines regional knowledge and experience with an international network of offices to provide comprehensive service to clients with interests in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, South Asia and beyond.

Latham established an on-the-ground presence in Dubai in 2008 and has witnessed the rapid growth of this dynamic city, as well as its recent economic challenges. Latham’s Dubai team has a commitment to continue growing and serving their clients in the UAE and the GCC, as well as those located internationally with interests across the region.

Areas of practice: With 20 lawyers located in its Dubai office, Latham has a team highly experienced in banking and finance, project development and finance, capital markets, investment funds, Islamic finance, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and technology transactions across industries such as education, energy, power, oil and gas, financial services, government entities, healthcare, infrastructure, mining and metals, construction, retail, and telecommunications.

Latham & Watkins is one of the few firms to have full English and US securities capabilities on the ground in the Middle East. Latham is a leader when it comes to debt and equity capital markets offerings in the Middle East and other emerging markets. Over the past decade, Latham has been the top law firm in global project bonds – ranked by value of bonds issued and by number of offerings. In addition, its lawyers have advised financial institutions, regional government agencies and corporate clients on many high-profile capital markets transactions and a wide range of GCC regulatory matters.

Latham’s M&A and private equity team has the in-depth knowledge and resources necessary to structure and execute complex transactions involving cross-border legal regimes throughout the GCC and the globe.

The firms’ lawyers are involved in some of the largest debt restructurings in the Middle East. Latham lawyers are members of the Hawkamah task force on MENA insolvency and creditor rights reform, as well as the Hawkamah task force on reforming corporate governance standards in Islamic financial institutions. The Legal 500 EMEA 2016 ranks Latham Tier 1 for banking and finance, and energy and infrastructure.

The firms’ award-winning global Islamic finance lawyers advise clients on the development of groundbreaking transactions in numerous jurisdictions, such as the first Islamic bank in the UAE to acquire conventional banking assets which were converted to Shari’ah-compliant financial products. The Legal 500 EMEA 2015 ranks Latham Tier 2 for Islamic finance.