London-based partner Guy Norman will be moved to Clifford Chance's Dubai office in October this year as the firm looks to build its corporate practice in the Gulf region.

Norman's secondment follows the recent relocations of Nigel Wellings and Tim Plews to Dubai and Riyadh respectively. Norman will arrive in Dubai months before present head of corporate practice Middle East, Simon Clinton, moves to Singapore at the start of 2011.

The relocations underline Clifford Chance's aggresive global strategy in building its international network where senior and experienced partners ares sent on secondments. This is in contrast to those of its rivals, where overseas positions tend to be filled by partners further down the pecking order.

Norman, who has been a partner at Clifford Chance since 1998, specialises in corporate finance, M&As and takeovers.

"Dubai and Singapore continues to gain importance as economic hubs and that has created robust client demand in those regions for experienced partners with strong connections across international networks," head of Clifford Chance's corporate practice Matthew Layton said.

Simon Clinton will continue to lead the firm's sovereign wealth sector group.

Meanwhile, Norman is widely tipped to return from the Middle East into a management role at Clifford Chance after a few years.

Clifford Chance's global corporate practice has over 160 partners operating out of 29 offices.ALB

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