As revealed on legalweek.com (5 February), the London firm is to open in Dubai in May with the hire of Ali and a three-lawyer team and will transfer London banking and project finance partner Shibeer Ahmed to Dubai to head up the office.
Dentons has arranged to hold talks with Ali this week in a bid to stop him moving, but he has told Legal Week he is set on his decision. Lovells said Ali had officially resigned and had signed an acceptance letter.
The banking and finance specialist is due to join Lovells with senior banking and finance associate Rustum Shah and
senior corporate and capital markets associate Imtiaz Shah, who will both join as partners.
Ali joined Dentons in 1999 and became a partner in 2003. Between them, the Dentons trio have acted on more than $12bn (£6.1bn) of transactions in the last 12 months.
Notable mandates include advising the underwriting banks on the $1bn (£508m) Islamic bond financing for the expansion of Dubai airport and advising on Dubai Ports World’s $5.7bn (£2.9bn) acquisition of P&O.
Dentons chief executive Howard Morris told Legal Week: “We will still have significant resource in the region and the clients are largely institutional ones.”
Lovells is also in the process of selecting a
The office will initially focus on corporate and finance work with a longer-term goal of developing a dispute resolution practice.
One City partner commented: “This move will affect Dentons’
Lovells is one of the last of the City’s heavyweights to launch in the
Additional reporting by Caroline Grimshaw.
