Bahrain humbug
Norton Rose claims it is still committed to kingdom as lawyers quit
Norton Rose claims its Middle East team is a ‘regional’ one in which no lawyers have formal bases. It is a hard line to believe, but this is how it has responded to the resignation of two of its lawyers in Bahrain.
The resignations leave the UK firm with just two lawyers based in Bahrain, with construction partner Joanne Emerson-Taqi and project finance senior associate Angela Croker remaining. Indeed, Norton Rose’s website referred to corporate of counsel Adrian Woodcock, who left recently, as “our senior corporate lawyer based in Bahrain”.
Fellow corporate of counsel Rayhana Kapadia-Sheikh left last month, with senior associate Mark Adams also no longer listed on the firm’s site. Another member of the Bahrain team, disputes of counsel Adam Vause, is based in Dubai.
Dubai partners such as banking lawyer Matthew Escritt and Islamic finance specialist Mohammed Paracha cover Bahrain from elsewhere, with one trend clear: lawyers are shifting from Bahrain to the rest of the Middle East.
Middle East disputes head Patrick Bourke admitted that Bahrain was now “rivalled” by Dubai, but argued that the firm is still committed to the Bahrain market and runs a “joined-up” Middle East team.
By contrast, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer lists three Bahrain-based lawyers (a partner, an associate and a principal consultant) on its website, while Trowers & Hamlins’ lists 15 lawyers and Baker & McKenzie’s lists 12.
Dubai may be pulling away from Bahrain as the place to be in the region, but not all firms see things the same way.
Readers' comments (2)
Trousers | 10-Jul-2012 5:02 am
Not sure why it's a had line to believe and makes total sense. Dubai is the regional hub and firms are waking up to the fact that you can't be full service in 4 jurisdictions in the gulf, it's just not viable. Bahrain was always going to slim down for regional firms as there's not a lot going on there. If its genuinely a place requiring quality legal resource the numbers would reflect that. It's not. It requires a regional approach or quality suffers. It's the size of Brighton and should be lawyered accordingly. All of the firms in the gulf have slimmed and doing so in the quieter places is nothing other than sound business.
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Anonymous | 23-Jul-2012 1:02 pm
This article is very speculative and one would assume that the Lawyer would verify facts before print - Ms. Melanie Henry is still very much a part of the Bahrain operations at NR (two is incorrect). As for Of Counsel that have left - they have their reasons and to speculate is plain fool hardy!
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