Allen & Overy has secured the hire of Ashurst partner Judith Kim to join the firm's energy team in Dubai.

Kim will rejoin the office in which she started out as an associate before moving to Shell to take on the role of senior legal counsel.

She joined Ashurst in 2010 and made partner the following year in the firm's resources and infrastructure department in Dubai, specialising in energy and petrochemical project development and mergers and acquisitions.

In a statement, Kim said: "It is great to return to such a great team of market leading practitioners and I'm looking forward to working with them to support clients on oil and gas matters and expand Allen & Overy's energy practice."

A&O scooped the title of Transportation, Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year at the Legal Week/Corporate Counsel Middle East Group awards earlier this year.

Separately, Taylor Wessing is also buling up in Dubai with a quartet of lawyers joining the firm, including Kennedys partner Nick Carnell as head of construction.

Carnell, who has been working with developers, funders and contractors in the region for nearly ten years, brings the total number of partners in the firm's Dubai office to seven.

"Nick Carnell is a very good name in the market here," said Taylor Wessing's Middle East managing partner Mark Fraser. "We see opportunity in the insurance aspects of construction work such as professional negligence, and he has a very good background in that."

"We are seeing more non-contentious construction work, but also more disputes work," continued Fraser. "The dispute side doesn't seem to be falling away like you would expect in a buoyant market like Dubai."

Fraser also pointed to infrastructure work generated in preparation for the Dubai Expo in 2020 as a driver behind growth in the region's property and construction sectors.

Three further lawyers will join the Dubai office alongside Carnell. Sarah Malik, a UK qualified counsel, will head up the office's employment team and advocacy unit, White and Case associate Adnan Chida will join the corporate team, and former Bowman Gilfillan associate Candice Cothill will bolster the intellectual property team.