Global law firm Shearman & Sterling will further strengthen its client service with the opening of an office in Dubai, expanding a Middle East footprint that already includes a market-leading, 40-year presence in Abu Dhabi and the recent association with Dr. Sultan Almasoud & Partners in Saudi Arabia. The new office will be located in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

“We regularly review our global configuration to ensure that we are able to serve our clients wherever they need our services,” said Creighton Condon, the firm’s Senior Partner. “Our Middle East practice, which this year is celebrating its 40th year in Abu Dhabi and the association with three Dr. Sultan Almasoud & Partners offices in Saudi Arabia, continues to be a market leader, and the timing is right for an office launch in Dubai.”

In the Middle East, Shearman & Sterling is a leading law firm in the areas of M&A, project development and finance, banking and finance, financial institutions advisory & financial regulatory, capital markets, private equity and international arbitration, providing legal advice to clients throughout the Middle East and foreign investors seeking opportunities within the region. The firm is a leader in many of the major sectors of the regional economy, including oil & gas, power, financial institutions, infrastructure and finance. Clients in the region include multinational companies, government ministries, state-owned companies, banks, investment agencies and financial sponsors in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Algeria and Yemen, as well as Libya and Morocco. The firm has also advised on ground-breaking Islamic (Shari’ah-compliant) financings.

From its regional base in Abu Dhabi, the firm has and will continue to serve clients throughout the Middle East. The new office in Dubai will allow the firm to offer clients more flexibility and better access to a major regional financial and commercial hub.

“Our Middle East practice is balanced between work for corporates and for state-owned entities,” said the firm’s Middle East managing partner and office managing partner in Dubai. “With continued infrastructure spending, private capital flows, capital markets transactions and disputes work, we see continued opportunities in the region for us to grow.”

The firm recently established an association with Dr. Sultan Almasoud & Partners, a leading Saudi firm with 16 lawyers across three offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al-Khobar. The offices will focus on a wide range of practice areas, including private equity, dispute resolution, capital markets and local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Firm leaders say that the firm will continue to look for opportunities to grow the firm in the region and globally.

“This is a very exciting time for the firm,” Condon said. “The legal market has bounced back following the global economic challenges in 2008, and we are actively serving our clients’ transactional and disputes needs across the globe.”

The firm has approximately 850 lawyers worldwide and services clients globally, with offices in many of the world’s major commercial centers, including: North American offices in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Menlo Park, and Toronto; a South American office in São Paulo; European offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Rome, and Frankfurt; Middle East offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al-Khobar; and Asian offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.