A team of lawyers, including four partners, have joined Watson Farley Williams in Dubai as part of efforts to strengthen the firm’s corporate and maritime disputes practices.
Natalie Jensen, Khalid Hamed, Rita Al Semaani Jansen, and Alastair Holland, along with a team comprising a senior associate, an associate, a trainee and three paralegals have joined the firm from Ince & Co in Dubai.
Jensen and Hamed join the firm’s maritime and dispute resolution groups, while Jansen and Holland join the corporate group.
Jensen has experience in the maritime, international trade and energy sectors in both the UK and UAE markets, advising on disputes arising out of charterparties, bills of lading, contracts of affreightment and other contracts of carriage, as well as those involving collisions and allisions.
Hamed, meanwhile, specialises in insurance and re-insurance disputes. The Egypt-qualified lawyer has over 30 years of experience and regularly advises on insurance coverage disputes before the UAE courts, principally for hull and machinery and marine cargo insurers.
Jansen advises on aspects of corporate and commercial law including national and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, and franchising.
Holland, meanwhile, has over 20 years’ Middle East experience advising clients on private M&A, equity capital markets, private equity, and joint ventures. His start date is to be confirmed, the firm said in a statement.
WFW Dubai office head Charlotte Bijlani said: “I am delighted to welcome Natalie, Rita, Khalid and Alastair to WFW. From a disputes perspective, Natalie and Khalid joining us further enhances our reputation for contentious work, including maritime. Rita and Alastair’s arrival meanwhile adds to the strength and depth of our current corporate offering in Dubai.”
Earlier this month Stephenson Harwood bolstered its marine and international trade team in the Middle East with the hire of a seven-strong lawyer team, including two partners, from Ince & Co.
