Entries for the Middle East Legal Awards (MELA) 2020 will close next week (January 20).

The awards, hosted by Legal Week, will take place at the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai on April 2, 2020.

Law firms and in-house teams with a presence in the Middle East are invited to apply to be shortlisted for the awards, which aim to recognise their achievements and innovations in the legal sector.

Teams can submit their applications to be shortlisted across 22 categories, including Legal Department of the Year (small and large teams) and International Law Firm of the Year.

Last year, Unilever was named Deal Team of the Year and Accenture Middle East took home the Legal Department of the Year (large team) prize among the in-house awards.

Eversheds Sutherland was named International Law Firm of the Year in 2019, while fellow international giant Baker Mckenzie took home two awards: Corporate Team of the Year and Infrastructure and Energy Projects Team of the Year. DLA Piper also won in a pair of categories: the Litigation Team and the TMT Team of the Year awards.

All nominees' applications will be reviewed for the shortlist, which will then be overseen by a panel of judges to find a winner for each category.

The deadline to apply is on January 20, 2020. Click here to enter your submission, or get more information on the event.