OutsourcedGeneral Counsel.Dubai.
An outsourced General Counsel in Dubai is a senior commercial legal function retained on a fixed monthly fee rather than employed or billed by the hour. Dinmore Bell provides it to founder-led and international businesses across the UAE: contracts, structure, disputes and governance owned end to end, with local counsel instructed where the law requires it.
Senior legal and commercial ownership for businesses building in the UAE, or building between the UAE and the UK — on the ground in Dubai, briefed once, and accountable for the outcome rather than the advice.
Why the usual options do not fit
A law firm, a first hire, or nobody. None of them is right.
Founder-led businesses in the UAE tend to arrive at legal support one of three ways, and each solves a different problem from the one they actually have.
The law firm
The leading firms here are genuinely excellent — some of the best lawyers in the world sit in Dubai. In our experience they also bill in the region of US$700 to US$1,000 an hour, and nobody inside your business is controlling that spend. For the lower-level, high-volume legal load a growing company actually carries — terms, supplier agreements, renewals, the licence question nobody asked — that is the wrong tool, held the wrong way round.
The first hire
An in-house lawyer in the UAE is a £100,000-plus employee before anything else. One person, one set of experience, one jurisdiction, and a single point of failure the day they are on leave or on the way out. Most businesses reach for this hire two years before they can justify it and get one person doing three jobs badly.
Nobody
The most common answer, and the most expensive one. The UAE is licensing-heavy in a way that founders arriving from elsewhere rarely expect, and we have watched businesses trade for months without realising they needed a licence for what they were doing — then meet the fine. Contracts get signed as they arrive. Nobody is reading them.
Choosing a structure
Mainland, free zone or DIFC.
We advise on the choice of structure at set-up. It is the decision that quietly determines what the business is allowed to do, who it can sell to, and how a dispute will later be enforced — and it is the one most often made on the advice of whoever was selling the licence.
The choice is commercial before it is legal
Which customers, where, and on what terms. A structure chosen for the lowest set-up fee is frequently one that does not permit the activity the founder actually intends — we have untangled exactly that for a client who had been advised into a free-zone structure that did not allow the business he wanted to run.
Enforcement is decided at set-up
Where a contract can be enforced, and under which law, follows from the structure and the governing-law clause together. The two are chosen months apart by different people, and the gap between them is where disputes get expensive.
Licensing is not optional and not obvious
The activity on the licence has to match the activity in the business. It sounds trivial until it is not, and the penalties are real. Part of what we own is making sure that never becomes a surprise.
Contracts across the corridor
English law contracts, UAE counterparties.
Much of the commercial law businesses meet here sits close to the English common law tradition, which is why so much UAE commerce runs on English-law contracts. That familiarity is an advantage right up until the moment it makes someone careless.
Governing law and jurisdiction are two clauses, not one
A contract under English law with a UAE counterparty still has to answer where a dispute will be heard and how a judgment will be enforced. We draft both deliberately, and we read both in every contract that arrives.
The contract load is the same load, in two places
Customer terms, supplier agreements, distribution, licensing, employment — the estate a UAE business carries is the estate a UK business carries, and we hold it in one contract control centre so nothing renews, lapses or expires unread.
Disputes are pursued commercially first
We do not conduct litigation in the UAE; where court proceedings are needed we instruct and control local counsel. We can represent clients in arbitration. Most disputes never reach either, because the party that is better prepared and less emotional usually settles them on its own terms — a private-office client owed AED 5 million by a counterparty who had absconded recovered it in full, without court, because we traced him and applied the right pressure.
How the corridor works in practice
Brief once. Both jurisdictions.
Most of our team is based in the UAE. We meet clients at their offices, we run the Scope Analysis on site, and we carry the UK side of the same business without a second briefing.
The vast majority stays with us
The contract load, the terms, the governance and the day-to-day commercial questions are owned by us directly, in both jurisdictions. Local counsel is instructed for what genuinely needs it — court proceedings, regulated advice — and we brief them, agree the scope and fee first, and remain accountable for the outcome.
An international approach, by design
Many of our clients trade across borders, and the UAE is treated as one part of an international function rather than a separate silo. A business expanding from the UK into Dubai, or the other way, gets one legal function that already knows both sides.
On the ground, not on a call
The people doing the work are in Dubai. That changes the relationship: problems get discussed across a table, the Scope Analysis happens where the business actually runs, and the advice reflects what we can see rather than what we were told.
Against the alternatives
What each option actually gives you here.
A founder in the UAE is choosing between a local firm, a placed lawyer, an employee and a retained function. They are not versions of the same thing, and the differences are clearer side by side.
| What is being compared | Dinmore Bell | UAE law firm | Secondment or placement | In-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Fixed monthly fee from £1,500, shown in AED. The same in a quiet month and a difficult one. | In our experience around US$700–1,000 an hour at the leading firms, with nobody on your side controlling the spend. | A day rate or a share of a week, priced on time rather than outcome. | £100,000-plus a year before benefits, recruitment and the cost of being wrong about the hire. |
| Who owns the work | We do. Problems arrive at you solved, not reported. | You do. The firm answers what you asked and hands it back. | They do, inside the hours you have bought. | They do, inside the hours one person has. |
| UK–UAE corridor | One function, both jurisdictions, briefed once. | Local expertise; the UK side is a separate instruction, separately billed. | Wherever that individual happens to be qualified. | Wherever that individual happens to be qualified. |
| Structure and licensing | Advised on at set-up, and kept matched to what the business actually does. | Advised on when asked, at the hourly rate. | Rarely within scope. | Depends entirely on the individual. |
| Availability | A team on the ground in Dubai. It does not stop for leave or another client. | Available when instructed, at the pace of an engagement letter. | The share of the week you bought. | Full time, and a single point of failure. |
| Regulated work and disputes | Disputes handled commercially and in arbitration by us; court work instructed to local counsel we control, on a scope and fee agreed first. | Conducted directly. | Instructed by them, or by you. | Instructed by them. |
Dinmore Bell
- Cost
- Fixed monthly fee from £1,500, shown in AED. The same in a quiet month and a difficult one.
- Who owns the work
- We do. Problems arrive at you solved, not reported.
- UK–UAE corridor
- One function, both jurisdictions, briefed once.
- Structure and licensing
- Advised on at set-up, and kept matched to what the business actually does.
- Availability
- A team on the ground in Dubai. It does not stop for leave or another client.
- Regulated work and disputes
- Disputes handled commercially and in arbitration by us; court work instructed to local counsel we control, on a scope and fee agreed first.
UAE law firm
- Cost
- In our experience around US$700–1,000 an hour at the leading firms, with nobody on your side controlling the spend.
- Who owns the work
- You do. The firm answers what you asked and hands it back.
- UK–UAE corridor
- Local expertise; the UK side is a separate instruction, separately billed.
- Structure and licensing
- Advised on when asked, at the hourly rate.
- Availability
- Available when instructed, at the pace of an engagement letter.
- Regulated work and disputes
- Conducted directly.
Secondment or placement
- Cost
- A day rate or a share of a week, priced on time rather than outcome.
- Who owns the work
- They do, inside the hours you have bought.
- UK–UAE corridor
- Wherever that individual happens to be qualified.
- Structure and licensing
- Rarely within scope.
- Availability
- The share of the week you bought.
- Regulated work and disputes
- Instructed by them, or by you.
In-house hire
- Cost
- £100,000-plus a year before benefits, recruitment and the cost of being wrong about the hire.
- Who owns the work
- They do, inside the hours one person has.
- UK–UAE corridor
- Wherever that individual happens to be qualified.
- Structure and licensing
- Depends entirely on the individual.
- Availability
- Full time, and a single point of failure.
- Regulated work and disputes
- Instructed by them.
What it costs
Published, in your currency.
The same tiers we publish in the UK, shown in dirhams. Almost nobody in this market puts a fee on the page; we would rather you knew before the first conversation than negotiated after it. The Scope Analysis confirms which tier a business actually needs.
Foundation
Your contracts, managed. Counsel on demand.
- Full contract lifecycle management
- Capped legal and commercial questions
- Drafting and review from our playbooks
- Monthly strategic call
Embedded
Most engagedYour outsourced legal and commercial function.
- Everything in Foundation, uncapped
- Active matter ownership and negotiation
- Management of your legal@ inbox
- Governance, regulatory and banking
- Coordination of specialists
Counsel
By invitationOutsourced GC and Founder Office.
- Everything in Embedded, bespoke
- Senior-led strategic and board support
- M&A, transactions and expansion
- White-label under your brand
Bespoke
Scoped to the briefA function built to a brief that no tier describes.
- Custom recovery and dunning systems, built on our platform
- A named compliance officer inside your business
- Company set-up and licensing across the corridor
- Project frameworks for a raise, an entry or a disposal
- Workflow and reporting design for an existing in-house team
We don’t bring an ego. We win.
Sam Ansloos · Managing Partner
What ownership looks like
Two results, anonymised because discretion is the product.
We never name who we act for. These are two matters from the UAE side, described only as far as the client would recognise them.
A founder had been advised into a free-zone structure that did not actually permit the business he intended to run. We untangled it, set up the correct structure, and in doing so avoided a fine of around AED 100,000 that was otherwise coming.
A private-office client was owed AED 5 million. The counterparty absconded and stopped responding. We traced him and applied the right pressure, and the funds were recovered in full without going to court.
Read further
Deciding
- In-House Lawyer Cost in Dubai: Salary Plus Gratuity, Visa and InsuranceThe 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.
- Fractional General Counsel, Dubai and the UAEFractional General Counsel in Dubai: a senior lawyer for part of the week. Not a law firm, and not a full-time hire.
The UK–UAE corridor
- Do UK restrictive covenants work in the UAE?A covenant drafted for an English contract and pasted into a Dubai one rarely fails because the idea is wrong. It fails because every load-bearing part of it was written for a different legal system, and none of those parts travelled.
- Employing somebody in the UAE: the three documentsA job offer, a contract registered with MOHRE and an internal contract written in head office. They rarely agree, and only one of them is the document that governs.
- Setting up in the DIFC: what the licence does not coverThe licence is the part of setting up in the DIFC that has a receipt, and it is also the part that is finished. Employment, data, the commercial terms and the structure above the entity are four separate pieces of work, and they bite in that order.
- Employing people in the UAE while the company stays BritishA UK company opening in Dubai has to decide who employs whom before the first hire, not after. Free zone against mainland, the UK contract that does not travel, and the intra-group agreement that makes the whole thing legible.
- Opening a Dubai entity: what the UK company actually signsThe licence takes a fortnight and a formation agent. The documents that decide whether the structure works — the intra-group agreements, who employs whom, and where the IP sits — are the ones nobody sells you as a package.
- Your first employee outside the UKThe offer is agreed and the only question left looks administrative: how do we pay them? It is not administrative, and the contract you have used for every UK hire has stopped doing the job.
- Branded residences in Dubai: the questions a UK hotel group should answer firstThe brand is the asset, and a branded residences deal is the moment you hand it to somebody else's building for twenty years. These are the questions worth settling before the term sheet.
- UK Company Opening in Dubai: The Legal Checklist Nobody Gives YouSetting up in Dubai isn't a single registration step — it's a sequence of decisions that each close off the next one. Sam Ansloos sets out the order they actually arrive in, and where a specialist has to take over.
- Which Entity Signs the Contract? The Question That Decides UK–UAE DisputesIn a UK–UAE group, the name on the signature block is not administrative detail. It decides which court or tribunal can hear a dispute, whether a judgment can be enforced, and which tax authority takes an interest.
- Before you hire a Legal Advisor in Dubai, work out which law your contracts are actually underUK founders opening a UAE arm keep advertising for an on-site contract administrator. Most of the real exposure is sitting in English-law parent agreements, IP ownership and the licence behind the entity — which makes that a good second hire and a poor first one.
- Free zone or mainland: the question founders ask lastThe decision is usually made by whoever incorporated first, then lived with for years.
Sam Ansloos
Managing Partner
Barrister-trained, with ten years of legal work that started in-house as General Counsel for an international manufacturing company. In-house nobody thanks you for the analysis; they ask whether it is closed. From 2020 he founded and built businesses of his own — automotive, leisure and hospitality, real estate and blockchain — taking them to eight figures, and ran the legal function across all of them himself. Doing it himself saved him hundreds of thousands in fees. That is where the frustration came from. Lawyers who answered a direct question with you could do this, or you could do that, and left the decision, the risk and the work with him. He wanted a solution that week, from someone who would then go and execute it. As the companies scaled he found himself thinking he could just do with one person to take the legal work and the firefighting off his desk. Nobody was selling that. Dinmore Bell is the firm he wanted to hire.
- LLB (Hons), University of Law
- Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), University of Law
- LLM Master of Laws, University of Law
- What is an outsourced General Counsel in Dubai?
- A senior legal and commercial function retained by the business on a fixed monthly fee, rather than a lawyer employed by it or a firm billed by the hour. Dinmore Bell owns the contracts, structure, disputes and governance a General Counsel would own, on the ground in the UAE, and instructs local counsel where court proceedings or regulated advice are required.
- Are you licensed in the UAE?
- Our UAE entity is Maurice James LLC-FZ, based at Meydan in Dubai, trading as Dinmore Bell International. We operate as a retained legal, commercial and corporate affairs function. We do not conduct litigation in the UAE; where court proceedings are needed we instruct and control local counsel and remain accountable for the outcome. We can represent clients in arbitration.
- Do you work with free-zone companies, mainland companies, or DIFC?
- All three, and we advise on the choice between them at set-up. The structure decides what the business is permitted to do, who it can sell to and how a dispute will be enforced later, so it is worth getting right before the licence is issued rather than after.
- Can you help a UK business setting up in the UAE, or a UAE business entering the UK?
- Yes — the corridor is what we are built for. Most of our team is based in the UAE and the firm operates in both jurisdictions, so a business expanding in either direction gets one legal function that already knows both sides, briefed once.
- Do you use English law or UAE law for contracts?
- Whichever fits the deal, chosen deliberately. Much of UAE commerce runs on English-law contracts and the commercial law here sits close to the English common law tradition, but governing law and jurisdiction are two separate clauses and we draft both on purpose — where a dispute is heard and how a judgment is enforced matter as much as which law applies.
- What happens if there is a dispute?
- We pursue it commercially first, which is how most disputes are actually resolved — by the party that is better prepared and less emotional about it. We can represent clients in arbitration. Where court proceedings are genuinely needed, we instruct local counsel, agree the scope and fee before they start, and manage the matter to a commercial outcome.
- How does the cost compare with a UAE law firm?
- The leading firms in Dubai are excellent and, in our experience, bill in the region of US$700 to US$1,000 an hour. Our fee is fixed and monthly, from £1,500 shown in dirhams, and covers the ongoing legal load a business actually carries. For work that genuinely needs a top-tier firm, we instruct one and control the spend.
- How does the cost compare with hiring a lawyer in-house?
- An in-house lawyer in the UAE is a £100,000-plus employee before benefits and recruitment, and is one person with one set of experience. A retained function costs a fraction of that and brings a team on the ground with specialists on tap, and it does not stop when one person is on leave.
- Is pricing different in the UAE?
- No. The tiers are the same as in the UK and are shown in dirhams on this page. We may introduce a UAE-specific package in future; if we do, it will be published here.
- How does an engagement start?
- With a Scope Analysis — often at your offices, since our team is in Dubai. We read the contracts, list the live risks, and set out in writing what we would take on, what stays with you, what needs local counsel and what it costs. You keep the written scope whether or not we go ahead.