Triple hire to bolster Baker McKenzie's hold in UAE market

Triple hire to bolster Baker McKenzie's hold in UAE market

The trio join as partners from King & Spalding and Linklaters to boost Dubai corporate practice

Global law firm Baker McKenzie's UAE arm Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla has announced three senior lateral hires of M&A lawyers. They include Osama Audi, Adnan Doha and Abeer Jarrar who will take over their new roles from August as partners.

While Audi and Doha move to Bakers from King & Spalding, Jarrar was associated with Linklaters. The trio is expected to bolster the firm's corporate practice in and the other Emirates of UAE.

"Osama, Adnan and Abeer have worked on some of the UAE's most complex and award-winning transactions. They bring a wealth of top tier transactional experience in M&A, capital markets and private equity," Habib Al Mulla, executive chairman of Bakers' UAE operations, said.

While Audi and Doha specialise in private equity, M&A, joint ventures, venture capital and corporate finance, Jarrar focuses on capital markets and public M&A.

Audi was associated with King & Spalding for over six years, becoming a partner in 2017, Doha's association as a senior associate with King & Spalding lasted for about three years. He had previously worked Clifford Chance in London for more than a decade.

Jarrar lent her services at Linklaters for four years as a managing associate, joining from Clifford Chance. She had worked at the Jordanian Embassy in Washington in the past and spent a year as regional director of the International Bar Association for the Middle East in the UAE.

"This team hire will build on our successes and will play a key role in continuing to strengthen our strategic growth of M&A and private equity capabilities in the UAE, GCC and the wider Middle East region," Omar Momany, the firm's UAE corporate and M&A head, said.

Bakers' UAE partner count will rise to 16 with the arrival of the trio. The firm offers its services I the fields of banking and finance, corporate, dispute resolution, tax, maritime and real estate.

"With this impressive team hire, we have now added 74 lateral transactional partners globally in the past three years. We will continue to accelerate growth in the key money markets whilst also embarking on the next stage of our transactional strategy to grow our transactional teams in a number of our other most important markets, including the UAE," Karen Guch, Bakers' global chair of private equity, said in a statement.