Bracewell & Giuliani’s Middle East practice provides a full array of corporate and transactional services to multinational corporations, governmental entities, state-owned enterprises and global financial institutions doing business in the region. From our centrally located office in Dubai, we represent domestic and foreign clients engaged in a wide range of industries, including energy exploration and production, infrastructure projects and defense contracts, among other products and services.
We have advised clients in engagements throughout the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Cooperation Council States of Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, as well as nearby jurisdictions such as Libya. Our attorneys have a clear understanding of the complex geopolitical realities of the region. This knowledge has been developed through extensive, first-hand experience as legal and business counselors, and through leadership positions in government, trade organizations and international business councils.
Energy
Bracewell delivers sophisticated legal, regulatory and transactional guidance to clients engaged in the exploration, production and delivery of oil, gas, and other traditional and non-traditional fuels. Our lawyers have advised and structured oilfield service companies and producer companies into a variety of countries throughout the Middle East and the Subcontinent, including the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Algeria. We provide experienced counsel for virtually any issue in the energy value chain.
Finance
Bracewell's in-depth experience in trade finance, pre-export financings, supplier and buyer credit facilities, international financial instruments, and payment mechanisms for export credit and other cross-border tax-advantaged finance transactions round out a suite of finance, corporate and tax services designed to assist clients throughout the Middle East and complement the firm's practices in the Caspian, London and New York. Our Capital Markets team has assisted clients in the region on equity, debt and convertible securities, innovative securities structures and techniques, financing mergers and acquisitions, project finance, and issuers and underwriters counsel on equity and debt offerings that are foreign, private and governmental issuances. We are skilled in initial public offerings in the DIFX, the Almaty Stock Exchange, the London AIM and the New York Stock Exchange.
The attorneys of our Middle East practice have decades of experience in the region. For example, one of our senior partners is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, with oversight responsibility for the operations of financial services providers licensed and operating in the Dubai International Financial Center. This same partner is a former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, a former member of the boards of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Resolution Trust Company, and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and as an advisor to numerous governments around the world.
Another of our senior partners has variously served as President, Executive Vice President and Vice President of Legal Affairs/Secretary of the Board of the American Business Council of Dubai. He has also served as Chairman of the American Business Council of the Gulf Countries, the regional group of the nine American Chambers of Commerce in the Arabian Gulf. Additionally, a number of our attorneys are also fluent in the key languages spoken in the region, including Arabic and French.
Other
Beyond our key energy and finance practices, we represent clients in a broad range of matters, including.
- Cross-border and domestic mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and reorganizations
- Foreign investment and foreign ownership regulations
- International and domestic tax matters and controversies
- International trade zones and financial centers
- Leveraged buyouts and management buyouts
- Litigation and dispute resolution
- Multinational pipeline and power projects
- Outsourcing contracts and service agreements
- Partnerships, joint ventures and hybrid structures
- Real estate and construction contracts
- Telecommunications, water, roads and other infrastructure projects
- Visa and immigration issues
- White-collar crime, criminal investigations and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters