Stephenson Harwood litigator Rovine Chandrasekera has been hired to defend former Leeds United managing director and former GFH Capital general counsel David Haigh, now in his ninth week in a Dubai jail.

Chandrasekera, the managing partner of Stephenson Harwood's Dubai office, is heading a team that includes associate Shiraz Sethi and other members of the firm's London disputes practice.

The team will advise Haigh on all criminal allegations and civil actions made by GFH.

Haigh (pictured) was arrested on 18 May after GFH accused him of committing fraud, embezzlement and money laundering while he was employed at the bank.

The lawyer, who according to his spokesperson has experienced deteriorating health in recent weeks, is contesting all allegations made against him and maintains his innocence.

Last month, Haigh's spokesperson said he had been given "only minimal access to his lawyers whom he is currently unable to pay because of the freezing by the DIFC, at the request of GFH, of his bank accounts".

As such, Stephenson Harwood has agreed to take on the case on the understanding that funds will be recoverable at a later date.

Haigh had previously turned to litigation boutique KBH Kaanun managing partner DK Singh and dispute resolution head Bushra Ahmed, for the matter, both of whom acted on a pro-bono basis.

The former Leeds MD, who is yet to be charged with a criminal offence, is also understood to have received some limited assistance from the UK embassy in Dubai.

The accusations from GFH include the claim that Haigh misappropriated $5m (£3m) of the private equity company's funds "by creating or procuring the creation of false invoices and procuring payment of those false invoices", charges which Haigh denies.

GFH says Murray's clerk only raised two separate fee notes, for £8,350 and £3,505 respectively, during the period, and that the £1.3m of invoices were sent to an account not owned by Murray.

In June, Haigh took to Twitter to accuse GFH's lawyers Gibson Dunn of having a conflict of interest, based on the firm's "past work and professional relationships with him". The claim was rejected by the firm, which called the conflict allegations "untrue and defamatory".

Haigh took over as the managing director of Leeds in July 2013, following its acquisition by Dubai based-GFH. He resigned from his post at GFH in April after Leeds was sold to Italian businessman Massimo Cellino.

Prior to his time at GFH and Leeds, Haigh worked in an in-house role at Barclays, and in private practice at Thomas Eggar, DLA Piper and Akin Gump.

Chandrasekera relocated to Dubai from London in 2012, to head up Stephenson Harwood's first office in the Middle East.