UAE law firm Habib Al Mulla & Co recently promoted Mazen Boustany and Ghassan El Daye to partnership at its Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices respectively, bringing its total number of partners to five. Both the promotions took place in January this year.
Boustany joined the firm in 2007 as head of its banking and finance practice in Dubai. Since then, he has been involved in legislative reform within the UAE. During his tenure with the firm, he has handled deals such as the structuring a the one billion dirham real estate financing project, the structuring and drafting of a $60 million Islamic bridge financing transaction through a reverse commodity murabaha, and the structuring of several private equity deals ranging from $5 million to $50 million.
El Daye joined the firm in 2008 as a senior litigation lawyer before being appointed as the head of its litigation team in Abu Dhabi in 2010. While at the firm, El Daye represented clients in cases including a 2.6 billion dirham litigation and arbitration case in Abu Dhabi, a case before the Dubai courts which set a precedent for the use of force majeur in contracts, and another before the Dubai court which set a precedent on phishing within banking systems.
The firm is seeking to transition itself from the traditional law firm model to a more commercially focused structure. Habib Al Mulla & Co is the first UAE law firm to create and fill the position of a chief executive in the country. In September 2011, the firm named former Clifford Chance global head of procurement and Italy chief operating officer, Rob Morris, as its CEO. Morris is currently based in Dubai.
At that time, the firm had said in a statement that it was looking to differentiate itself in the market by moving away from the managerial and operational structure of the traditional law firm model. Instead, the firm was hoping to create a more commercial, client-centric approach to legal services. ALB
Other related stories: