Commercial Litigation, Pensions, International Arbitration

Barrister specialising in Commercial Litigation, Pensions, International Arbitration.

Stephen Doherty was called to the bar in 2013.

Stephen has a commercial disputes practice with a focus on international arbitration, litigation, and financial services. His international work is predominantly based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the wider GCC region, where he regularly appears in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Courts across a number of practice areas, as well as representing parties in arbitrations under a number of institutional rules, including the ICC, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA and ADCCAC.

Stephen is ranked as a Tier 1 Junior by the Legal 500 (The English Bar: Commercial in the Middle East) and as an “Up and Coming” Junior Chambers & Partners Global 2022.

Legal 500: “Stephen is a pleasure to work with. He is commercially minded, reliable and also delivers a calm and considered approach to advocacy.”

Chambers & Partners: “Stephen Doherty is a very hard-working advocate and he knows his DIFC law really well.” “He has a phenomenal understanding of local laws. He is excellent on regulatory investigations. I would highly recommend him.”

Stephen has been instructed as sole counsel in numerous multi-million dollar disputes, encompassing general commercial work (civil fraud, shareholder disputes, joint ventures, freezing injunctions etc.), as well as disputes within the fields of banking and financial services, and construction. He has also been instructed in respect of a number of regulatory investigations by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (including investigations concerning the Abraaj Group), and has previously spent time on secondment at various regulatory authorities, including both the Enforcement and General Counsel’s Division of the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Pensions Regulator.

Stephen has a first-class degree in History from Oxford University. He completed his Graduate Diploma in Law with distinction and achieved an outstanding grade in the Bar Professional Training Course. He is also a contributing author to Atkin’s Court Forms issue on Pensions.