In-House Lawyer Cost in Dubai: Salary Plus Gratuity, Visa and Insurance

The salary on a Dubai offer letter is the basic figure, and often not even the whole package. Here is what a first legal hire in the UAE adds to it, with the source for every number.

Deciding · Part of Outsourced General Counsel, Dubai

Start with the right salary figure

The first trap in pricing a legal hire in Dubai is that published salaries measure different things. Robert Walters' Middle East Salary Survey 2026 quotes basic salaries, exclusive of benefits. Hays' GCC Salary Guide 2025 quotes the total fixed monthly package, which in the UAE usually means basic pay plus allowances. Read side by side, the two look closer than they are.

For UAE in-house roles, per month:

| Role | Robert Walters 2026 (basic) | Hays 2025 (total fixed package, private sector) | |---|---|---| | Legal Counsel | AED 35,000–70,000 | AED 45,000–55,000 | | Senior Legal Counsel | AED 50,000–90,000 | AED 60,000–85,000 | | Head of Legal / Legal Director | AED 70,000–90,000 | AED 80,000–100,000 | | General Counsel | AED 80,000–140,000 | AED 100,000–110,000 |

Hays also shows public-sector packages in Abu Dhabi and Dubai running at or above the private-sector figures for senior roles, which matters when a private business is competing for the same people as a government-related entity.

The split between basic pay and allowances is not a detail. It decides what the employer owes when the person leaves.

End-of-service gratuity: the cost that accrues quietly

The UAE has no pension scheme for expatriate employees. The UAE government's own guidance says they are entitled to end-of-service gratuity instead. For UAE nationals, and GCC nationals under their home country's social security law, the employer pays pension contributions.

Under Article 51 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, an employee who completes a year or more of continuous service is owed 21 days' basic wage for each of the first five years and 30 days' basic wage for each year after that, pro rata for part years, capped at two years' wage. It is calculated on the last basic wage.

Take an illustrative basic salary of AED 50,000 a month, inside Robert Walters' range for a Legal Counsel. Twenty-one days' basic pay comes to roughly AED 34,500 to 35,000 for each year of service, depending on whether the daily rate is worked out on a 365-day year or a 30-day month. Five years' service builds a liability of around AED 173,000 to 175,000, owed in cash on exit. It is not a cost a business can contract out of, and a founder who has not provisioned for it meets it on the day a senior hire resigns.

Health insurance, the visa and the work permit

In Dubai, Law No. 11 of 2013 requires the employer to bear the cost of enrolling employees in health insurance and not to charge it to them. The premium depends on the plan chosen, and for a senior hire the plan is part of the negotiation. Since 1 January 2025 a federal scheme has extended employer-paid cover to the Northern Emirates, with a basic package at AED 320 a year, and made it a condition of issuing or renewing residency. That AED 320 figure is not a Dubai benchmark.

The employer pays for the visa. Article 6 of the Labour Law prohibits charging the worker the fees and costs of recruitment and employment. MOHRE's work permit fees run from AED 250 to AED 3,450 over two years depending on the category the company falls into, and the Dubai residence permit carries its own GDRFA fees, including AED 200 for the permit and AED 500 where it is issued inside the country. The amounts are small next to the salary; the administration is not, and someone in the business has to run it every two years.

One cost that does not fall on the employer: the unemployment insurance scheme is paid by the employee, at AED 5 or AED 10 a month plus VAT depending on basic salary.

Recruitment, probation and the cost of leaving

Finding a senior lawyer in the UAE usually means an agency. Dubai recruiters publish contingency fees of 15 to 25 per cent of first-year base salary, and retained searches at 25 to 33 per cent or more of first-year total compensation. On a General Counsel at AED 110,000 a month basic, Robert Walters' average, a 20 per cent contingency fee is over AED 260,000.

The Labour Law then sets the terms of any exit. Probation may run up to six months, and an employer ending it must give at least 14 days' written notice. After probation, the notice period is between 30 and 90 days, and an employee earns 30 days' annual leave for each year of service. If the hire works out, every one of those days is paid for whether or not there is a full week of legal work. If it does not, the business pays the notice, the accrued leave and any gratuity, and starts recruiting again with the seat empty.

What the arithmetic is for

None of this makes an in-house hire wrong. When the legal work fills every week, a General Counsel on the payroll is the right answer, and the costs above are what that answer costs. The mistake is making the hire on the salary alone, a year or two before the work justifies it, and discovering the rest when the person moves on.

The alternative is a fractional General Counsel: a senior lawyer for the part of the week the business can use, on a fixed monthly fee, with no visa, insurance or gratuity attached. Dinmore Bell provides it from Dubai as an outsourced General Counsel function, instructing a licensed UAE advocate where the law requires one. A Scope Analysis puts the two options side by side for a specific business, in writing. For the UK version of this arithmetic, see what an in-house lawyer really costs in the UK.

Where a specialist is needed

Drafting a UAE employment contract, structuring the split between basic pay and allowances, and handling a disputed termination are UAE employment-law questions. Where they need a licensed UAE advocate, Dinmore Bell instructs one, holds the budget and stays accountable for the outcome.