Resolving disputes is a vital component of corporate risk management and strategy. The speed and force of the globalisation of business and the unprecedented expansion and growth of the Middle East market are resulting in more cross-border disputes requiring high quality, strategic and co-ordinated advice and expertise.

Al Tamimi & Company continues to maintain the largest, strongest and broadest dispute resolution practice in the Middle East. Our team comprises of dispute resolution lawyers based in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha and Baghdad. Many of the senior individuals within the team are recognised as leading practitioners in their field. Whatever problems our clients face, wherever they occur in the Middle East and beyond, we are strategically placed to assist.

Our clients rely on our global perspective and on our in-depth knowledge and understanding of local and regional laws. Within the UAE, we regularly confer with government ministries and departments during the introduction of new legislation and ongoing amendment of internal regulations, relying on long established contacts in all government departments. We also regularly advise and act for government bodies of the different emirates.

We regularly work collaboratively with foreign and local law firms in the UAE and the rest of the world. Because of this our knowledge of the international legal community and foreign legal procedures is second to none. However, what distinguishes Al Tamimi & Company’s Dispute Resolution and Litigation Practice is that we understand the local culture by being a part of the community. Emphasis on local knowledge and abilities has been and will continue to be a critical component of our practice. Having the international skills and talent while remaining a local firm is one of the great pillars of our success.

All the lawyers at Al Tamimi & Company seek, first and foremost, to practice a philosophy of ‘dispute avoidance’. This involves anticipating areas of conflict with in our client’s objectives, before they appear. Nevertheless, disputes can, and do, arise. Our consistently creative application of a broad range of binding and non-binding alternative dispute resolution mechanisms will, in many cases, remove the need for relatively costly and time consuming litigation.

We are familiar with the techniques of structured negotiation, helping the parties to large contracts establish a formal strategy of communication and commitment and facilitated negotiation where a neutral facilitator is provided to aid parties with serious unresolved disputes resume a co-operative dialogue.

Al Tamimi & Company lawyers specialising in alternative dispute resolution are also fully conversant in all forms of mediation including procedures in which the mediator actively proposes compromise solutions to the parties, as well as procedures in which the mediator remains strictly neutral.

Successfully managing and resolving business disputes arising wholly within one’s home jurisdiction is often difficult enough, but when those disputes arise transnationally difficulties can easily become impossibilities.

Contractual agreements to arbitrate remove many of the risks and uncertainties associated with bringing court proceedings in unfamiliar jurisdictions, or against parties whose principal assets are located overseas.

Arbitration is a specialist area of law, however, and effective arbitration requires a degree of expertise and experience that can only be obtained, and maintained, through a commitment to the field and regular exposure to international legal practice.

Al Tamimi & Company is widely recognised as possessing some of the foremost international commercial arbitration expertise in the Middle East. Members of the Arbitration Group are international lawyers with considerable experience of arbitrating public and private law disputes in a variety of regions and industries, either as counsel or arbitrator. The firm’s practitioners regularly write, consult and lecture on arbitration around the world.

In January 2008 Al Tamimi & Company was named by the Global Arbitration Review as one of its 100 “Approved” specialist arbitration firms worldwide.

Effective arbitration will always require a careful analysis of the law and facts relevant to each case, the informed nomination and/or challenge of arbitrators, the drafting of claims, answers, and further written submissions. Most probably, it will also involve the interviewing of witnesses and the drafting of witness statements, the production of documentary evidence and oral advocacy before the tribunal - including the examination and cross-examination of witnesses and the presentation of legal submissions.

The Arbitration Group has the resources and the expertise to represent clients in most types of arbitration, including those involving agencies, construction, companies, finance, infrastructure, international trade, transport and general services, as well as treaty law and other aspects of international law. Our practitioners are experienced civil and common law advocates able to conduct proceedings in English and Arabic – although by far the majority of the proceedings we are involved in are in English.

• For more information, contact info@tamimi.com