How To Start A Law Firm In Dubai: Tips For Making This Process As Smooth As Possible

How To Open a Law Firm In Dubai Have you recent­ly grad­u­at­ed from law school and are now hop­ing to set up your own firm? Are you con­sid­er­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in North Amer­i­ca, Europe, or the Mid­dle East? Or are you an estab­lished lawyer look­ing to seize the oppor­tu­ni­ty of a fresh chal­lenge in an excit­ing urban cen­tre? If any of these cir­cum­stances apply to you, con­sid­er open­ing a law office in Dubai. This amaz­ing city in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE) is one of the most excit­ing cities in the Mid­dle East, and new law firms are con­tin­u­ous­ly pop­ping up and thriv­ing in many dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines, such as real estate, cor­po­rate, tax and oth­er specialties. This arti­cle explores the reg­u­la­tions sur­round­ing set­ting up a law prac­tice in Dubai. Many new­ly mint­ed lawyers and expe­ri­enced attor­neys alike are turn­ing to Dubai as a place rich with new and excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant that you know the lay of the land first and that you’re well-versed in the reg­u­la­tions sur­round­ing a new law ven­ture in Dubai. Here’s a look at all you need to know before plung­ing in!

First Steps — How To Open a Law Firm In Dubai

- You Must Register

In Dubai, reg­is­ter­ing with the Min­istry of Jus­tice is your first step toward open­ing a law office in the city. This gov­ern­ment agency can pro­vide you with all the infor­ma­tion you need and forms to com­plete before you can make your dream one step clos­er to real­i­ty. Even if you’re an expe­ri­enced lawyer with a decade or two under your belt, this body must grant you a licence before set­ting up shop.

- You Must Connect With a Local Legal Eagle

Unless you’re a cit­i­zen of Dubai, you need to part­ner with a local lawyer in order to set up a prac­tice. A local lawyer must meet the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria before part­ner­ing with some­one, whether the new­ly arriv­ing lawyer is from Amer­i­ca, Europe or else­where in the Mid­dle East:

• They must be 21 years of age or older.
• They must have prac­tised for at least one year on a con­tin­u­al basis.
• They must hold accred­i­ta­tion from an estab­lished, rec­og­nized insti­tu­tion like a university.
• They must be a nation­al of the UAE.

The legal sys­tems of the Emi­rates oper­ate slight­ly dif­fer­ent­ly from each oth­er. In case of Dubai, it has its own legal sys­tem, and it has three sep­a­rate lev­els. They are:

• The Court of First Instance. (Where cas­es are ini­tial­ly filed, as the name implies).
• The Court of Appeal. (This lev­el is self-explanatory).
• The Court of Final Cas­sa­tion. This lev­el com­pares to Supreme Courts in oth­er coun­tries. (Cas­es not set­tled in the Court of Appeal may be tak­en on by this court, and its deci­sions are con­sid­ered final).

When Is a Lawyer Not a Lawyer In Dubai?

There are two dif­fer­ent types of legal pro­fes­sion­als who can prac­tice in Dubai. The first is called a legal con­sul­ta­tion or advo­cate; the sec­ond is called a lawyer. Here’s a look at the duties of each category.

- Legal Consultants

Con­sul­tants (or advo­cates, as they’re often known) can per­form many of the same duties as full-fledged lawyers. Those duties include:

• They may give legal advice and offer opin­ions to their clients. 
• They may also draw up con­tracts and cre­ate and/or dis­solve companies. 
• Fur­ther­more, they may rep­re­sent a client in front of an arbi­tra­tion tribunal.

- Practising Lawyers

These pro­fes­sion­als are allowed to rep­re­sent clients in all lev­els of court in Dubai. These are the legal experts who must be licensed by the Min­istry of Jus­tice, and it’s impor­tant to note that even if one is a cit­i­zen of anoth­er Emi­rate, a licence must be grant­ed to work specif­i­cal­ly in Dubai. Dubai is a thriv­ing busi­ness cen­tre, and its bustling appeal is a huge draw to many in the legal pro­fes­sion. If you’re con­sid­er­ing set­ting up a law firm in Dubai, here’s a roundup of the busiest types of law cur­rent­ly in demand. (These cat­e­gories are from the Law Soci­ety of Dubai).

• Finance and banking.
• Res­o­lu­tion of disputes.
• Islam­ic finance.
• Com­mer­cial real estate projects and development.

Sev­er­al cri­te­ria must be met if you were born out­side the UAE and want to form a prac­tice in Dubai. Know­ing these will help smooth the process and get your firm up and run­ning more quickly.

• The firm must hold a valid licence from the Dubai Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment. Apply­ing for and obtain­ing this licence quick­ly should be your first priority.
• You must have a com­mer­cial licence from the Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Finance Cen­tre (DIFC).
• You must also be reg­is­tered as an ancil­lary ser­vice provider with the Dubai Finan­cial Ser­vices Author­i­ty (DFSA). This is vital because – as we men­tioned pre­vi­ous­ly – you must be teamed with a local lawyer who is a Dubai nation­al to prac­tice law in Dubai. And even so, as a for­eign-born lawyer, you are not allowed to appear in court for your clients; that’s the job of your local partner.

What Else Should You Know Before Diving In?

Once you’ve tak­en all the steps nec­es­sary to prac­tice law in Dubai, this new ven­ture will undoubt­ed­ly be excit­ing and chal­leng­ing. It’s impor­tant that you know more than sim­ply the ins and outs of the legal sys­tem when you move to Dubai – you need to know and respect its cul­ture and traditions. For exam­ple: did you know that PDAs (Pub­lic Dis­plays of Affec­tion), such as hug­ging or hold­ing hands, are frowned upon in Dubai? This is the sort of cus­tom you should be well versed in for two rea­sons: first of all, respect­ing a place’s val­ued tra­di­tions is essen­tial in any circumstance. How­ev­er, if you’re set­ting up a law firm in Dubai, it’s even more crit­i­cal that you don’t break the rules! You may not end up in jail for a first infrac­tion, but you won’t make a good impres­sion on new col­leagues and friends! Mov­ing there with­out under­stand­ing that the Mid­dle East, in gen­er­al, but Dubai, in par­tic­u­lar, has many unique aspects to life, there is no ide­al way to begin set­tling. Do a lot of read­ing both online and at your local library; go shop­ping for books about this excit­ing city, and if pos­si­ble, talk to friends and col­leagues who’ve made a move. Being pre­pared, not just for prac­tis­ing law but for liv­ing your life to the fullest, is the best way to ensure you’re ready for the pro­fes­sion­al chal­lenges that lie ahead. After start­ing the appli­ca­tion process­es to all the var­i­ous bod­ies we’ve men­tioned here, don’t for­get that you need a Visa, too. Either talk to staff at the con­sulate if one is in your city or do some online research on time­lines and oth­er details well in advance of your move. Hav­ing your Visa in hand ear­ly will go a long way toward keep­ing you calm (but excit­ed!) before mov­ing to Dubai to estab­lish your­self as a lawyer.

In Summary

Dubai has been nick­named “the city of gold” for a good rea­son – it is a huge hub of finan­cial wheel­ing and deal­ing in the UAE. But Dubai, for all its many ben­e­fits and attrac­tions, is not a city that’s cheap to live in. Accord­ing to recent esti­mates by a research web­site based in Dubai, a sin­gle indi­vid­ual needs at least $1,000 (USD) in income each month to man­age, and that does­n’t include the cost of rent­ing your home and law office! Like New York and oth­er major metrop­o­lis­es, Dubai real estate goes for pre­mi­um prices, whether you’re buy­ing a home or rent­ing an apart­ment. If you’re hop­ing to rent in the city’s bustling cen­tre, rental costs (for a one-bed­room apart­ment) run approx­i­mate­ly $2,000 (USD). And you’ll have to rent office space for your new firm or con­tribute to it if you join an estab­lished prac­tice. This is pricey, par­tic­u­lar­ly if you’re in the city cen­tre. We could­n’t find a tru­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive rental price because there are too many vari­ables, most notably loca­tion. But you’re look­ing at (at least) $10,000 (USD) annu­al­ly to rent a small office for your­self fair­ly close to the city core. On top of these expens­es, you have to fac­tor in gro­ceries, enter­tain­ment and oth­er costs that accrue each month. Yes, Dubai is an expen­sive city to live in, no mat­ter your pro­fes­sion. How­ev­er, once you’re estab­lished as a lawyer in one of many thriv­ing fields open to you in Dubai, you’ll have lots of work to sup­port what­ev­er lifestyle you choose. It can feel a lit­tle intim­i­dat­ing to con­sid­er mov­ing to Dubai (or any­where that’s brand new and chal­leng­ing) to start a law prac­tice – we get it! But there are so many ben­e­fits and mar­vel­lous oppor­tu­ni­ties in this “city of gold,” we think it’s well worth inves­ti­gat­ing. After all, you became a lawyer to tack­le new and excit­ing issues, right? Mov­ing to Dubai to set up a law prac­tice is bound to give you oppor­tu­ni­ties galore. Whether you choose tax law, real estate devel­op­ment, or oth­er pos­si­ble avenues, prac­tis­ing law in Dubai is bound to be so excit­ing that you may nev­er want to be a lawyer any­where else!

How To Be a Lawyer In Dubai? — Maria Rubert Video