Ben Gillespie, the new head of corporate law for DLA Piper in the Middle East, obviously has something the legal profession wants.
When he told his former firm that he was joining DLA, they insisted on six months “gardening leave”, meaning he could not work on any business for his new employers during that time. It’s not unheard of in the legal profession, but rare enough to signal that the new recruit has some pretty expert knowledge and contacts that need to be protected.
So Mr Gillespie went trekking in Nepal before formally starting with DLA this week. He explains: “DLA has got an extensive regional platform but with global ambitions. It was irresistible really”.
The firm has been in the region for 10 years, part of the influx of legal talent that accompanied the first Dubai boom in the early 2000s. DLA has remained expansionary throughout downturns and slowdowns, and claims to be the only international firm with an office in each country of the GCC.
“A lot of the attraction was the commitment the firm has. It’s all about getting different offices talking to each other and thinking globally,” says Mr Gillespie, who first came to the UAE in 2006 with another of the regional big guns, Clyde & Co.
There was a family connection to law and order in the region – his father had been a policeman in Yemen – but for Mr Gillespie Jr it was just the right career move. “Dubai was booming and it seemed a good time to fly away and try something new in an exciting place,” he says.
In those rather more gung-ho days, he developed expertise in areas of corporate law advisory work that remained in demand throughout the boom, the 2008 crisis and the subsequent recovery – transaction advice, initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals in the good times, and restructurings, refinancings and disposals when things were not so good.
That experience gives him a valuable insight into the current state of the regional economy. “We’re in interesting times, no doubt about that, with oil at a 12-year-low and regional security problems. But I get the distinct impression that things are going remarkably well, in the circumstances,” he says.
“Infrastructure investment is continuing, deals are still being done. Maybe not so many in oil services, for example, but this economy is not just about oil now. The diversification process is well advanced, and we’ve seen recent moves – in Saudi Arabia just over the past few days – to accelerate the privatisation process. The market for IPOs has been difficult of course, but what we have seen from Saudi Aramco might just kick-start a privatisation process this year.
“In Dubai in 2009, there was a ‘bubble and bust’ situation, but I don’t see that here now. I’m confidently optimistic about the regional economic backdrop,” he adds.
Legal business is to some extent tied to the general business cycle, but DLA believes the sectors in which it has expertise will help outweigh any oil-driven weakness – technology, health care, life sciences and education in particular. The firm has firmly hitched its wagon to the “smart city” concept which is such a prominent part of the thinking of regional policymakers.
And it has consciously developed those skills that are much in demand in more challenging economic circumstances. “The firm has historically had an expertise in debt restructuring and we have been involved in some of the big Dubai cases,” he says. “But I like to think we have a different approach to it. It’s not just about crisis and insolvency. It is about meeting challenges and weathering a storm with new capital and investors as a normal part of the business process.”
In all sectors of business law, the scene in the UAE has become a lot more competitive over the decade DLA has been here. The traditional players have geared up, new global entrants have opened, and new regional firms have brought their local expertise and contacts to bear in a market they regard as their natural hinterland.
Inevitably, there have been suggestions that this kind of growth might not be sustainable in the softer economic conditions of $30 oil, and some firms have “downsized” over the past year. Mr Gillespie is adamant that DLA is not among those, and is committed to growth in the region.
“Staff numbers have grown, we now have 100 lawyers in the GCC, we have opened a third office in Saudi in Al Khobar, and we’ve expanded in Kuwait, which has been largely underserved by international law firms in the region,” he says.
The strategy is to address the “big themes” that the firm and he believe will be constants in the region regardless of the oil price.
“Greater liberalisation of the corporate scene is crucial to developing a more efficient and valuable market system,” he says. “The new companies laws in the UAE and Saudi Arabia were introduced to address this theme, to make markets more attractive and improve governance. Foreign investors can get put off if there isn’t good governance, but I see a will on the part of the regional establishment to improve this. They want to continue to diversify revenue and go global.”
Talking globally, the firm has also begun thinking about the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the capital’s new financial free zone. Some law firms already have offices in ADGM’s Al Maryah Island headquarters, but DLA has so far resisted the temptation to move from its base in Al Bateen. “ADGM gives clients another option. It’s something we will consider at some stage,” Mr Gillespie says.
fkane@thenational.ae
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