Gateley Middle East specialises in advising on M&A, corporate restructuring, corporate real estate and dispute resolution across the region. It is part of Gateley Legal, a multi-disciplinary law firm that has been providing legal advice to clients since 1808.
Gateley Legal was the first UK commercial law firm to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2015. We currently have 28 offices including in major commercial hubs across the UK and 2 international offices in Dubai and Hong Kong, operating with a ‘one firm’ ethos to provide advice to clients as a unified 1,500+ strong team across a variety of sectors.
Should you need further information or would like to discuss how we could support you, we would be delighted to set up a meeting to discuss your requirements.
Commended for multiple practice areas including corporate M&A
Times Best Law Firm 2025
Shortlisted for UK Law Firm of the Year: large size
British Legal Awards 2023
Shortlisted for multiple practice areas and initiatives
ALM Law.com International Middle East Legal Awards 2024
OUR DUBAI OFFICE
Our lawyers have a deep understanding of the law in the region. This, allied to the firm’s extensive market knowledge across various industry sectors, business and government entities within the Middle East, gives us the ability to devise solutions that are legally sound and, just as important, practical and commercially focused.
Regional and international businesses and governmental organisations value our commercial acumen and our approachable manner. English, Arabic, Hindi and other leading business languages are spoken by members of our team. Gateley Legal operates as a unified team across all our offices including our team in Dubai.
We have considerable experience in acting on cross-border transactions and litigation. Our lawyers have worked in numerous regional jurisdictions (including in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman and Egypt).
Our expertise in the Middle East
Corporate deal making has been a core part of our business for over 30 years. We have one of the most active corporate teams in the UK. Experian MarketIQ have ranked Gateley in the top five legal firms for deal volume every year for the last decade, and we have been in the top three of the UK table for seven of those years. With a team of over 80 corporate lawyers, we have the right people with the deal expertise to advise clients on all types of corporate activity.
We advise government departments, sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, private and public companies, owner-managed businesses and entrepreneurs on a wide range of corporate matters including:
- mergers and acquisitions
- corporate disposals
- private equity
- venture capital
- flotations
- re-organisations
- rights issues
- placings
- joint ventures
- takeovers
Real estate development
We advise on all aspects of real estate development, handling legal requirements from start to finish for any project, acting on a wide range of industrial, retail, leisure, office and mixed use development projects. The real estate development projects we undertake are often complex by nature and may span several years.
Real estate finance
Our team of real estate finance lawyers offer a complete service to banks, financiers and borrowers, advising on a variety of matters within real estate finance. These include lending to acquire real estate, funding commercial and residential developers to work on projects and refinancing existing funding arrangements. We are experienced in the full range of finance structures, including:
- syndicated and bilateral loans
- bridging finance
- mezzanine debt
- subordinated capital
- preferred equity
Disputes can occur for almost every business and organisation: suppliers, customers, business partners and even shareholders all have the potential to create tension.
Dealing with disputes is not easy; they can use valuable resource, time and critically, prevent a management team from running the business. We take a firm, yet the commercially-grounded approach to dispute resolution. That means we actively encourage and engage in alternative dispute resolution methods but don’t shy away from bringing and defending court proceedings.
Our team advises on complex commercial disputes across a range of sectors.
We have a strong track record and can quickly pull together trusted teams of experts to assist in any case and obtain the best outcome for our clients, often in time-critical situations.
As many disputes require other specialist litigation expertise, we regularly consult with our colleagues in other disciplines such as construction disputes, insolvency litigation, insurance disputes, IP disputes, IT disputes, offshore litigation, professional negligence, property litigation, shipping disputes and business ownership disputes.
We advise employers, HR practitioners and those responsible for people management on the best way to fix the people issues that arise within organisations in everyday operations as well as in change projects. We help workforces become fitter for the future, flexing the solutions employers implement in response to changing economic and social contexts.
Our expertise includes advising on:
- Absence management
- Disciplinary & dismissal procedures
- Diversity, equity & inclusion
- Employment litigation & tribunals
- Flexible working
- Recruitment & retention
- Redundancy
- Restrictive covenants
- Workforce restructuring
- Workplace investigations
Our full-service nature and wide range of practices enables us to draw teams of specialist lawyers from across a variety of legal disciplines to advise not only on “family level” issues, but also on operational issues that are unique to family businesses. We take pride in offering practical guidance that considers both the legal aspects and the unique dynamics of family-owned businesses. Our lawyers collaborate closely with clients to find sustainable solutions that align with our clients’ family values and business objectives.
Our expertise includes advising on:
- Succession planning and Sharia compliance (as applicable)
- Structuring and restructuring
- Corporate governance and sustainability
- Family disputes and conflict resolution
- Corporate and family asset ownership and risk management
- Wealth management and family office
- ESG transformation from a legal and regulatory perspective
- General corporate and commercial issues