Helping family businesses and private clients in the Middle East
Our experienced family business and private clients team at Gateley Middle East delivers exceptional, results-driven legal advice. Comprised of internationally and regionally qualified lawyers, our team brings over two decades of experience working closely with family businesses and their key stakeholders. Whether advising founders on their succession planning or putting in place ownership structures for the sustainability of the business, we offer tailored, pragmatic solutions backed with our knowledge and experience of the applicable laws and regulations, and how they’re enforced in practice.
We’ve earned a reputation for our deep understanding of the GCC market and our commitment to protecting the interests of our clients. We help family businesses implement structures to allow for smooth succession, minimising future disputes though a proactive yet legally enforceable approach and ensuring the sustainability of the family businesses.
Not only do we work with family businesses, we also work closely with regulatory bodies and organisations that support family businesses to optimise the family business environment in the UAE. We pride ourselves on offering more than just legal advice, we aim to become trusted partners who help clients in identifying executable commercially-viable legal solutions taking into consideration succession planning and the application of Shariaa in the GCC region.
Our team
Led by Nora Al Muhamad, a seasoned partner with almost two decades of hands-on experience in family business, our team has a proven track record in navigating interpersonal dynamics within families with care and understanding.
With a team with extensive ties to the region, Arabic-speaking lawyers and international experience, we bring depth, capability, and a personal touch to every matter, driven by a collective focus on delivering practical, high-quality advice for complex challenges in an approachable and collaborative way.
Our core services
Our legal expertise covers the full spectrum of family and corporate needs. We advise on structuring and restructuring, governance, succession planning, foundations and trusts, and Sharia compliance where relevant. Our team supports clients with M&A, joint ventures and broader corporate transactions, as well as family disputes and conflict resolution. We also guide clients on asset protection, risk management, international family office regulations, ESG transformation, and general corporate and commercial matters.
Our tax specialists combine deep technical expertise with practical international experience. We advise on the cross border tax implications of commercial, financing and investment activity, supported by a team that has worked within multinational organisations and managed international operations firsthand. Our core services include international tax strategies, tax structuring, personal tax and wealth structuring, and employee incentives and rewards. This combination ensures that our advice is both effective and efficiently implemented.
We act immediately to protect and, when required, restore personal or business reputations. Our specialists manage social media, digital publications and traditional print and broadcast media to safeguard individuals and companies from reputational risk. Our proactive and responsive approach ensures that your reputation remains resilient across all channels.
We are leaders in cross border dispute resolution, advising family owned businesses and shareholders, including prominent Middle Eastern and royal families, on complex and sensitive matters. Our expertise spans shareholder disputes, asset recovery, arbitration and litigation across international and local proceedings. We deliver results in high stakes situations involving fraud, investment exits and finance arrangements. With sector experience in areas such as yacht financing, hospitality and oil and gas, we provide precise, discreet, and tailored legal solutions.
Our occupational psychologists assess and profile internal and external candidates to support growth and long term succession planning. We develop leaders, teams and organisational cultures that align with strategic ambitions. Core services include business transformation and cultural change, organisational transformation, defining leadership capabilities, assessing leadership potential, leadership development and accelerating learning and performance.
Flexible and transparent fee structures tailored to your needs
We believe in offering innovative and transparent fee structures that align with our clients’ needs and objectives.
We are happy to explore what option suits your model and your budget, whether it be capped fees, fixed fees, success fees, retainer fees, hourly rates, milestone payments or hybrid fee structures, we provide clarity and flexibility in how we charge for our services and keep our clients regularly updated.
Our extensive experience includes:
- Advising on structuring options for the establishment of an international family office for a Saudi-based conglomerate benchmarking the UAE against international jurisdictions such as the UK, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
- Advising a diversified KSA-based conglomerate with USD600m in revenue on the restructuring of its ownership structure to introduce a non-KSA national ensuring its cross-border assets remained compliant with local regulations.
- Drafting bespoke legal documents including constitutional documents such as foundation charters and by-laws for use in the Dubai International Financial Centre, tailored to reflect the family constitution of a major UAE business group.
- Advising a UAE federal entity on the Family Business Law, proposing legislative enhancements to strengthen governance, succession planning, and long-term sustainability for UAE-based family enterprises.
- Advising a Saudi Arabian government body on legal reforms to support family-owned businesses. This involved providing detailed recommendations for amendments to KSA’s new Commercial Companies Law with a focus on continuity and generational transition for family-owned companies.
- Leading the international redomiciliation of ownership vehicles for a prominent UAE family enterprise transitioning from the British Virgin Islands to the Dubai International Financial Centre.
- Advising on a cross-border transaction involving the closure of a trust structure in the British Virgin Islands which included the transfer of properties in the UK from the trust structure to a private client individual.
- Advising the members of a leading African family business conglomerate to develop a comprehensive family charter and succession protocol. The draft family charter resulted from several in-depth workshops aimed at aligning individual wishes of family members with the founder’s long-term vision.