The two Dubai-based partners leaving Akin Gump are local office head Gavin Watson and banking partner Chris Sioufi, who joined last year from DLA Piper.
Akin Gump will be closing its Dubai office on 21 January and is expected to relocate to Abu Dhabi within the next few months, with Middle East clients served in the meantime by partners in New York, London and Washington DC. The firm says it believes business opportunities for clients will be better served from Abu Dhabi rather than Dubai.
For Dewey, the new office - which has yet to officially launch - will be staffed with lawyers hired from Akin Gump and from fee earners currently working elsewhere in its network.
Watson, a projects partner who has previously worked at both King & Spalding and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, is understood to be in line to lead the Dewey venture in
Legacy firm LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae had planned to open in the region long before sealing its merger with Dewey Ballantine in October last year. The move gives the combined firm its first standalone office in the Middle East, having previously been restricted to an affiliation in
The Middle East has attracting growing interest from a number of international firms, with some looking beyond
DLA Piper, meanwhile, said last November that it plans to open an office in
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