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Practice
About this area

UAE court work is the part of disputes practice where procedural discipline determines outcome more often than the merits.

Our litigation caseload sits in the UAE onshore courts. Recent and ongoing matters include a forced liquidation and recovery action under Article 308 of Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021, judicial dissolution and execution proceedings before the Abu Dhabi Commercial Courts, an unfair dismissal claim before the Employment Division of the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance, a labour cassation appeal before the Federal Supreme Court, criminal extradition proceedings in Dubai, tenancy and administrative decision appeals, and a portfolio of FTA tax disputes running from first instance to cassation.

We treat jurisdiction, governing law, and the interaction between arbitration clauses and court proceedings as live issues to be litigated, not assumptions to be inherited from the contract drafter. Where the right forum is contested, we contest it.

“Where the right forum is contested, we contest it.”

— Pillar III · Disputes

Interim relief, attachment and post-judgment enforcement run as one workstream with the substantive claim. That means travel bans, banking attachments and execution against UAE-located assets, planned alongside the claim rather than left until after judgment.

The work, in detail

Four matter types we handle in litigation.

Commercial and contract disputes.

We handle commercial-contract disputes in the Abu Dhabi and Dubai onshore courts, from demand correspondence through to cassation. That covers breach claims, debt recovery, distribution and supply disagreements, and post-contractual performance disputes. Our recent matters include cross-border debt recovery and shareholder injunction proceedings.

Corporate, shareholder, and dissolution claims.

Shareholder and corporate disputes are a recurring area of work. They include a judicial dissolution before the Abu Dhabi Courts that produced a dissolution order and compensation, and ongoing shareholder injunction and director conflict matters across ADGM and onshore entities. The corporate law and litigation strands run as one strategy rather than two files.

Employment and labour cassation.

Employment litigation in the UAE moves quickly through three court tiers, and preparation counts. We have acted for respondents and for senior employees through the Employment Division of the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance and on to cassation before the Federal Supreme Court, including matters carrying twenty-five years of service exposure and the enforcement of post-employment restrictive covenants.

Tax, regulatory, and enforcement.

We act in the UAE's growing tax dispute caseload, covering FTA claims and cassation appeals, and in administrative decision appeals before sectoral bodies. We also run execution files: dissolution, attachment and travel ban applications. That is the stage where a judgment turns into recovery.

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