Short one again. Before putting any job in front of you this week I opened the senior in-house ads myself. Every one of them was past a hundred applicants. One took more than four hundred in a single day. So there is no shortage of lawyers. There is a shortage of the ones people actually want.
Abu Dhabi's arbitration centre, arbitrateAD, has just reported its highest caseload since it opened in February 2024. Twenty new cases in the first half of this year, up two-thirds on the same stretch last year, with close to a billion dirhams in dispute. Construction and property have been most of its work since day one.
Twenty is not a big number. The direction is the point, and so is what is feeding it.
Look at what has been signed, or gone out to bid, in the Gulf in the last couple of weeks. Nakheel gave Metac an eight hundred million dirham contract for seven residential buildings on Dubai Islands. In Saudi, Al Moammar Information Systems is expanding the AI data centres it is building for Humain to 250 megawatts. And developers are pricing bids to build and run a 730 megawatt power and steam plant for Petrokemya, on a twenty-year contract.
Every one of those contracts has a disputes clause. Most will never be used. A few will, three or four years from now, when the ground turns out different or the power comes on late. That is where the arbitration work of 2029 comes from, and the firms know it. Two of the nine partner moves I wrote about earlier this month were disputes people.
The courts are getting their share too. Global Arbitration Review reported last week that an Omani group has asked a Dubai court to overturn an ICC arbitration award that threw out its fifty-five million dollar claim against an Indian partner over a failed joint venture. The award used to be the end of the fight. More and more, it is round two.
I am already being asked for disputes lawyers who have sat through a Gulf hearing, not just drafted the pleadings.
The construction arbitration lawyer, six to ten years in, who can run a file in Arabic and in English and has actually cross-examined the expert who puts a number on the delay. Plenty of people have done half of that. The firms want all of it. The in-house teams at the big developers want the same person, to stop the claim before it starts. I can name most of the people who fit, and most of them are not looking.
UAE-based Extravaganza has bought Roja Parfums, the London luxury fragrance house, outright. Tribonian Law Advisors acted for the buyer. Gulf money buying British brands is not new. A Gulf firm advising on it is newer, and that is the work moving here.
ADES has finished buying Saipem's Saudi drilling business for two hundred and eighty-five million dollars, five jack-up rigs with it. A Saudi-listed driller buying out a European contractor on home ground. Behind that sits a pile of rig contracts, leases and people moving across, and a busy autumn for whoever holds the pen in-house.
The Islamic Development Bank sold a one and a half billion dollar five-year sukuk, and the order book was the biggest the bank has ever had. Dentons acted for the banks running it. The sukuk desks have not had a quiet month all year.
Neterwala Group, Head of Legal for India, the Middle East and the UK, based in Dubai. Fifteen years plus, board-facing, and they want someone who knows manufacturing and engineering. Three jurisdictions reporting in to one person is a real job.
Keeta, Senior Legal Counsel covering Kuwait. Seven years plus, at least five of them on Kuwaiti law, Arabic and English. The ad lists a Riyadh base, so ask that question early. Kuwait-qualified commercial lawyers who want to work in food delivery are a short list.
Sony Music Entertainment, Legal Counsel, UAE. Eight to ten years, Arabic and English, media or tech preferred. The title undersells the ask, so read it as a senior seat.
Sharjah's courts put fifty staff through a two-day course last week on running a judiciary with AI, built on what the Korean courts have done. The same week, Qatar's justice minister said digital tools are a means and not an end, and that a human will still check whatever the machine produces. Quiet stuff, and that is the point. The Gulf courts are training their people before they buy the software. Most law firms did it the other way round.
Since this week is about the firms: from Legal Route's 2026 Gulf benchmark, monthly base for a senior associate at a UK or international firm in Dubai runs AED 70,000 to 90,000, and at a US firm AED 95,000 to 135,000. Partners, across every tier, AED 130,000 to 300,000. The full Gulf Legal Salary Guide 2026, every city and every level, is free at legal-route.com/answers. No PDF, no form.
A senior counsel for an investment firm in Abu Dhabi, at final interviews. A general counsel for a government-backed developer. And a non-contentious IP partner for Saudi.
The contracts are being signed faster than I have seen in years. The people who will fight over them in 2029 are sitting in associate seats today, and this is when the good offers get made.
If you are weighing a move, or you are a GC with a seat you cannot fill, the Legal Route chat at legal-route.com is free and it answers straight.
- Legal Route