As Dubai matures and recruitment there slows, legal recruitment in Dubai will occur outside of the traditional core fields of projects, energy, corporate and finance, into arbitration, litigation and information technology.
London-based agency LPA Legal Recruitment, agrees, saying "there has been an increase recently in demand for dispute resolution lawyers - that is relatively new to the market in the past three months. And some firms are starting to look at new areas of law, such as environment, which until now, firms in Dubai hadn't been looking at." LPA Legal Recruitment maintains that the shift in emphasis is the direct result of the economic downturn in the west. "Banking seems to have slowed down as you would expect. There has been a real shift post-Lehmans. Over the past year. the Middle East seemed to have been cocooned from the effects of the credit crunch, but the past month to size weeks has definitely seen an air of cautiousness."
LPA Legal Recruitment says that currently there is a shortage of corporate partners and corporate associates in the Middle East. "Every firm is looking for that four-year-plus PQE level of corporate specialist and there are very few of them about. We are seeing lots of lawyers at the junior level - the global economy is having a huge effect on that end of the market. Indeed, most of the junior level recruitment has disappeared completely as firms are relocating staff from the UK - unless you've got a real superstar, it is unlikely to make placements at that level."
LPA and other consultancies specialising in the region point out that there is currently a good market for non-contentious construction lawyers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi - especially those qualified in Australia with strata title experience as UAE property law is based on an Australian system. LPA Legal Recruitment says Dubai has become "much more specialised, particularly in areas such as finance. "The legal market in the city, she says, is becoming "a bit more like London in terms of specialisation. In contrast, the markets in Oman and Bahrain are far less sophisticated, with firms looking far more for, say, generalist banking associates. In the smaller jurisdictions, the firms look for a much broader skill set. They want very general company-commercial and banking lawyers. That applies to Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar to a certain extent, although that country is heavily dominated by energy work so there is always a demand for those specialists."
Ultimately, perhaps the major lure for lawyers to the Gulf has been remuneration packages. LPA Legal Recruitment maintains that Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are more or less on a par in terms of basic salary rates, with some firms actually paying a premium in Qatar owing to extremely high accommodation costs. On the other hand, Oman and Bahrain are several notches down on the salary scale.
In general though, Gulf-based recruitment consultants have a warning for those lawyers labouring under a crumbling economy in the west who turn to the Middle East with a glint in their eye: the streets are not paved with quite as much gold as the marketing might have them believe.
LPA Legal Recruitment was interviewed by Jonathan Ames, The Brief (November 2008)