Looking for a business lawyer in Dubai? Senior legal counsel for your contracts, shareholders, structure and disputes, on a fixed monthly fee. Not a law firm, and not a full-time hire.
Most companies searching for a corporate or commercial lawyer in Dubai do not have one legal problem. They have a steady flow of them: a customer's terms to sign by Thursday, a shareholder who wants out, a licence that no longer matches what the business sells, a distributor asking for exclusivity, an invoice ninety days overdue. A law firm will answer each one at an hourly rate. What the business usually needs is one senior person who already knows the contracts and the structure, decides what matters and carries the position. Dinmore Bell is an outsourced legal function led by a senior lawyer, working from Dubai, on a fixed monthly fee. Where the work needs a locally licensed advocate or consultant, such as court proceedings, we instruct one on a scope and fee agreed first and stay accountable for the result.
A business lawyer in Dubai, in the sense most companies need one, is senior legal counsel who owns the contracts, shareholder documents, licence structure and disputes of a company trading in the UAE. Dinmore Bell provides this as an outsourced legal function led by a senior lawyer, working from Dubai, on a fixed monthly fee. It is not a UAE law firm: where the law requires a locally licensed advocate or consultant, one is instructed on a scope and fee agreed first.
How we own it
Contracts: the paper you issue and the paper you receive
Most of the legal risk in a Dubai business arrives as a contract. Customer terms, supplier agreements, distribution, NDAs, service levels, the enterprise buyer's own template. We build your own set of terms with agreed fallback positions, read the paper counterparties send before it is signed, and run the negotiation, so a sales team gets a straight answer the same day. Two clauses matter more here than people expect. Governing law and jurisdiction are separate decisions: a contract under English law with a UAE counterparty still has to say where a dispute will be heard and how a judgment will be enforced. And the entity that signs decides where the money lands and who can be made to pay. Every signed contract goes into one register with its renewal, break and notice dates, so nothing renews or expires unread.
Shareholders, and the structure above the company
A shareholder agreement is cheapest to write while the founders still agree. It settles who decides what, what happens on deadlock, how a departing shareholder's shares are valued and who can buy them, and whether an investor can drag the others into a sale. In the UAE it should be drafted alongside the memorandum of association, so that the private agreement and the registered constitution say the same thing. The structure underneath is the other half. Mainland, free zone or DIFC is a commercial choice before it is a legal one: who the customers are, where they are, and how a dispute would be enforced. Since the 2021 reforms to the Commercial Companies Law, most mainland activities allow full foreign ownership, with strategic-impact activities set by the Cabinet as the exception. A free zone licence covers that zone and trade abroad, not the onshore market by default. We advise on the choice at set-up and keep the activities on the licence matched to what the business actually sells.
Commercial agency and distribution
A foreign brand appointing a UAE distributor, or a UAE company representing one, is dealing with a regime of its own. The Commercial Agencies Law (Federal Law No. 3 of 2022) came into force on 15 June 2023 and governs registered commercial agencies. Registered agents must be UAE nationals or companies wholly owned by them, with public joint stock companies at least 51% owned by UAE nationals now also eligible. The law changed the balance on termination. A registered agency can now end on expiry, under the contract's own termination rights or by agreement, with a notice period that defaults to one year or half the term, whichever is shorter. An agent may still claim compensation on non-renewal unless the parties agreed otherwise, and disputes go first to the Commercial Agencies Committee before arbitration or court. Whether to register at all, and what the agreement says about compensation and exclusivity, are the decisions that matter, and they are made at signature.
Employment, from the employer's side
We act for employers, not employees. The UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021) has applied since 2 February 2022 to private-sector employment onshore and in the free zones that do not have their own employment law; the DIFC and ADGM run their own regimes. Employment contracts are fixed-term, and end-of-service gratuity is calculated on basic salary once an employee has a year's service. The work for an employer is keeping the offer letter, the contract registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and any internal contract consistent, writing restrictive covenants that can be enforced (the law allows a non-compete of up to two years, limited by place and type of work), and handling a departure before it becomes a claim. Where an employment dispute goes to the courts, a licensed advocate is instructed.
Disputes and unpaid invoices
Most commercial disputes are settled by the party that is better prepared and less emotional about it. We take the commercial position first: read the contract and the record, put the claim in writing, and negotiate. We can represent clients in arbitration. UAE law gives a creditor real tools. A debt that is in writing, due and for a fixed sum can be pursued by a payment order under the Civil Procedure Law, and a cheque returned for insufficient funds can be taken straight to execution. Court filings and execution are conducted by licensed UAE advocates, whom we instruct, brief and keep to an agreed budget. For the detail, see our page on debt recovery in the UAE.
Fractional General Counsel: the same role, for part of the week
Everything on this page is delivered as a fractional General Counsel. That means one senior lawyer who knows your business, retained for the share of the week the work needs, instead of a full-time hire or a firm billing by the hour. A typical engagement runs at the equivalent of half a day to two days a week, rising for a transaction, a licence change or a dispute and falling back afterwards. It suits a founder-led Dubai business that has outgrown signing contracts as they arrive but cannot yet fill a General Counsel's week. Our fractional General Counsel page for Dubai explains how the role works, who it suits and who it does not.
What it costs, and how it starts
Retainers start at AED 7,050 a month, fixed, and are agreed against a written scope rather than an estimate of hours. There is no charge for asking a question, which is deliberate: the expensive outcome in a growing business is the decision taken without asking. Every engagement begins with a Scope Analysis. We read the contracts, the licence and the shareholder documents, list the live risks, and set out in writing what we would take on, what stays with you, what needs a licensed UAE advocate and what each part costs. You keep the written scope whether or not you go ahead.
Where specialists come in
Dinmore Bell's UAE company, Maurice James LLC-FZ, is licensed for business consultancy. It is not a law firm, does not hold an advocacy or legal consultancy licence, and does not appear before the UAE courts. Where a matter needs a licensed UAE advocate or legal consultant, such as court proceedings, a payment order application, execution or other regulated advice, Dinmore Bell instructs one, briefs them, agrees the scope and fee with you first, holds the budget and stays accountable for the outcome.
Related insights
All insights →What a free zone licence does not let you do
The licence is a permission to operate somewhere specific, and the UAE mainland is not that place. What the restriction actually is, the three routes onshore, and what to do when a customer asks for a mainland invoice.
Employment contract in the UAE: which of your three documents governs
A 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.
Which company in your group should sign this?
A founder with a UK company and a Dubai entity signs whatever arrives. Which entity signs decides where the money lands, which law governs, who can be made to pay, and whether the covenant behind the deal is worth anything.
- How much does it cost to hire a lawyer in Dubai?
- It depends on how the work is bought. In our experience the large firms in Dubai bill in the region of US$700 to US$1,000 an hour, which suits a transaction or a court case. The steady load of contracts, licence questions and shareholder paper is usually cheaper on a retainer. Dinmore Bell's retainers start at AED 7,050 a month, fixed, agreed against a written scope. Where a locally licensed advocate is needed, their fee is quoted separately and agreed with you before they start.
- What is a commercial lawyer?
- A commercial lawyer handles the agreements a business trades on: customer and supplier terms, distribution and agency, licensing, NDAs, and the disputes that come out of them. A corporate lawyer handles the company itself: shareholders, the board, the constitution, raising money and selling. Most Dubai businesses need both, from the same person if possible, because the shareholder agreement and the customer contracts have to point the same way.
- What goes under commercial law?
- For a business in the UAE, the main pieces are the Commercial Companies Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021), the Commercial Transactions Law, which also governs cheques (Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022), and the Commercial Agencies Law (Federal Law No. 3 of 2022). Free zones add their own company rules, and the DIFC and ADGM run separate legal systems with their own courts. Which of these applies depends on where the company is licensed and where it trades.
- Is legal counsel the same as legal advisor?
- In everyday use the two overlap: both describe someone who advises a business on its legal position. Legal counsel usually means a lawyer working for one business, in-house or retained, who owns its legal work rather than answering one question. In the UAE, advocate and legal consultant are regulated professions with their own licences, and only licensed advocates appear before the UAE courts. Dinmore Bell works as retained legal counsel and instructs licensed advocates for court work.
- What is the difference between a legal advisor and a legal consultant?
- In the UAE the distinction is regulatory as well as linguistic. Advocates and legal consultants are licensed under federal law, and in Dubai the Legal Affairs Department keeps a directory of both. Legal consultants advise but do not appear in court; advocates do. Dinmore Bell's UAE company holds a business consultancy licence, not a legal consultancy or advocacy licence. It acts as a retained legal function and instructs licensed practitioners for regulated work.
- What is the difference between a mainland and a free zone company in the UAE?
- A mainland company is licensed by the emirate's economic department and can trade across the UAE; since the 2021 reforms most activities allow full foreign ownership, with strategic-impact activities set by the Cabinet as the exception. A free zone company is licensed by its zone and is built to trade inside it and abroad, so selling onshore needs a route that the licence does not give by default. A DIFC company sits under DIFC law. The right choice follows the customers, not the cheapest licence.
- Is Dinmore Bell a law firm in Dubai?
- No. Our UAE company, Maurice James LLC-FZ, trading as Dinmore Bell International, is licensed for business consultancy. We are an outsourced legal function led by a senior lawyer, working from Dubai: contracts, structure, governance and commercial disputes. We do not appear before the UAE courts or hold ourselves out as UAE advocates. Where UAE law requires a licensed advocate or consultant, we instruct one, agree the scope and fee first, and stay accountable for the outcome.
- Can you help with an unpaid invoice from a Dubai customer?
- Yes, for business debts. We read the contract and the paper trail, decide whether the debt is collectable or disputed, and run the demand and the negotiation. Where a claim needs to go to court, including a payment order under the Civil Procedure Law or execution on a bounced cheque, a licensed UAE advocate files it, briefed by us, on a fee agreed first.