Highly commended: Al Tamimi & Company
Finalists: Allen & Overy • Clifford Chance • Galadari • Hadef & Partners • Hogan Lovells • K&L Gates

In a first-in-country deal for the United Arab Emirates, Shearman & Sterling advised Abu Dhabi Global Market on its establishment as a financial free zone. This involved drafting a comprehensive set of civil, commercial and financial legislation that meets and often goes over and above the standards required by financial centres such as London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore. The hope is that, when complete, the project will allow foreign investors and financial institutions to work in a transparent regime that offers more certainty and less risk than other jurisdictions in the Middle East.

In a first for the region in modern times, the financial free zone will directly use English common law, rather than codifying the common law. Shearman additionally drafted a suite of laws to govern areas such as companies, insolvency, employment, interpretation, property and commercial licensing. The project required an unprecedented level of interdisciplinary cooperation and coordination, given that each law drafted impacted upon, and was in turn influenced by, the provisions of other laws.