GULF LEGAL MARKET DATA · REBUILT DAILY
The Gulf legal market in numbers
By Nigel Byrne · updated 1 September 2026 · Legal Route
The only continuously updated public dataset on the Gulf legal market: every transaction crossing Gulf legal desks, every named in-house move, and the pay benchmark behind them. Tracked daily by Legal Route, the Gulf-only legal search firm.
Deal flow
572 transactions tracked on the wire to date
99 in the last 30 days · 541 in the last 90
$895.1 billion in disclosed deal value, last 90 days
across 217 transactions with a published value
64 named in-house legal moves tracked
64 in the last 90 days
Where the deals are
Other
147 transactions, last 90 days
Saudi Arabia
127 transactions, last 90 days
Uae
119 transactions, last 90 days
Oman
60 transactions, last 90 days
Kuwait
34 transactions, last 90 days
Qatar
22 transactions, last 90 days
Bahrain
19 transactions, last 90 days
Dubai
10 transactions, last 90 days
Sharjah
2 transactions, last 90 days
Adgm
1 transactions, last 90 days
What Gulf lawyers are paid, 2026
UAE General Counsel: AED 90,000 to 160,000 a month base
international firm partner AED 130,000 to 300,000 · 3 to 5 year associate AED 72,000 to 99,000
Saudi General Counsel: SAR 90,000 to 180,000 a month base
Chief Legal Officer SAR 150,000 to 280,000
Qatar General Counsel: QAR 70,000 to 120,000 a month base
senior counsel QAR 55,000 to 75,000
Full bands, package norms and how to read them: the Gulf Legal Salary Guide 2026.
Free to cite
This data is free to cite with attribution to Legal Route (legal-route.com/data). For same-day comment on any Gulf legal market or deal story: Nigel Byrne,
nigel@legal-route.com, 00971 50 947 4435.
The daily deal wire → The moves tracker →