Highly commended: Flash Entertainment
Finalists: Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons • DP World head office • Drydocks World & Maritime World • Gulf General Investment Co • Thomson Reuters

The judges were impressed by the winning team's "passion, innovation and commercial acumen" as well as the strong endorsement they received from senior colleagues in the business.

Headed by legal director Thomas Speed, Travelport's Dubai-based legal team supports its businesses in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The department's legal expertise is demonstrated by its work advising the travel company on its negotiations with the region's leading airlines, its competition work in markets such as South Africa, where it has a large market share, and its sanctions advice. The team has also developed a suite of airline debt recovery, suspension and termination letters and rolled out a new set of travel agent agreements that have been automated to speed up their production. 

Meanwhile, a team development programme has seen each team member become an expert on a different area of law. The department's CSR programme sees it participate in Gaza and Syria-based charities and help deliver Ramadan food packages to labour camps in Dubai.