Addleshaw Goddard is set to boost its presence in the Middle East with the launch an office in Oman after recruiting two Trowers & Hamlins partners.

The launch will mark the firm's second presence in the region alongside its base in Dubai, which opened in September last year.

The office will be led by Trowers' Oman corporate head Charles Schofield and banking partner Roger Byrne, and will operate in exclusive association with Nasser Al Habsi, a corporate law specialist and a former colleague of Schofield and Byrne at Trowers' Muscat base. It is expected to formally launch in February.

Yesterday (14 January) Trowers issued a statement that Schofield and Byrne had left the Oman office after they were found to have breached terms of their partnership agreements.

The firm commented: "We can confirm that Charles Schofield and Roger Byrne, two junior partners in Oman, have left the firm with immediate effect.

"We discovered that they have taken shares in a company set up under the Foreign Investment Law in Oman with a competitor while they were working for us, and they have left following the termination of their partnerships for breach of the partnership agreements."

Addleshaws managing partner Paul Devitt said in a statement: "Roger, Charles and Nasser are very well respected in their specialist fields and their experience, combined with our growing reputation in Dubai, will provide us with a strong foothold in a strategically important and growing market."

He added: "Extending our footprint, and introducing additional transactional expertise in projects, finance and corporate, to complement our current strength in litigation will be instrumental in increasing the firm's market share in the Gulf region".

Addleshaws' Dubai launch last September saw the firm hire former Trowers partner and construction specialist Andrew Greaves to lead the new base.