DWS fast-tracks associates to boost Middle East
Denton Wilde Sapte is drafting a formal policy that could see London associates who transfer to international offices guaranteed partnership promotions within a year of moving.
One Dentons senior associate told The Lawyer he had been asked to move to the Middle East and in return would be made up to partner at the next promotion round after he had served 12 months in the region.
“I was told that if I stayed in London it would take me more than a couple of years to get to partnership, so going to the Middle East would be a good move,” said the associate.
Dentons made a hugely symbolic move that indicated the vital importance of its Middle East operations when it transferred chairman James Dallas (pictured) to Dubai last September. Dallas’s move followed the launch of offices in Qatar and Saudi Arabia in 2007, and the firm has now made it a strategic priority to boost personnel levels in the Middle East.
A spokesman for the firm confirmed that some associates had been approached with potential offers.
“We’ve been making an internal communications push to encourage fee-earners to consider offices in our Middle East network, as these are currently growing at an incredible rate and have a constant need for good-quality lawyers,” said the spokesman.
The policy will not be limited to the Middle East, but will cover the firm’s entire international operations, which are its main driver of growth since the UK business has stalled.
“We’re currently discussing plans for a more advanced policy which will further incentivise our fee-earners to go on secondments to our overseas offices and to clients as well,” said the spokesman. “This will include salary and career incentives, which are yet to be finalised.”
However, he added that, as the policy is itself yet to be finalised, he could not confirm or deny that guaranteed partnership promotions would be on offer.
Dentons’ present policy is simply to assist staff with the costs associated with moving to other jurisdictions, as well as helping them find somewhere to live.
Read this week's leader and reader comment on this subject here.
Readers' comments (6)
Anon. | 28-Jul-2008 4:03 pm
This isn't just about the Middle East!
This story, the leader and the comments all seem to have hardly noticed a crucial fact written further down, which is that the same deal also applies to associates willing to move to the firm's other foreign offices. Two years in the Middle East might be purgatory, but Paris? Moscow? Bring it on. Almaty could be interesting, too...
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Gay lawyer | 29-Jul-2008 11:31 am
Gays in the middle east: missed opportunity?
Firms waste the opportunities presented by gay lawyers who don't have children and thus might be more prepared to move to the Middle East by not being more proactive in defending homosexuality and standing by their gay lawyers in the region.
Homosexuality might be out-lawed under (readings of) Islam, but it is also against (traditional readings of) Christianity, yet gay people won rights in the West even when people here were a lot more Christian than they are today.
Middle Eastern business needs Western law firms as much as Western law firms need Middle Eastern business - if law firms banded together they could promote equality effectively, but so far individual businesses are unwilling to do this because they fear they will simply lose business to their rivals.
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Lawrence | 29-Jul-2008 11:33 am
London, Paris, New York... Dubai?
Dubai is the most liberal of all the middle eastern locales and even that is not a very pleasant place to live. The reason? It's a cultural wasteland that 20 years ago was a pile of sand-dunes. You can create a business park out of nothing, but you can't create a city.
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Assistant | 29-Jul-2008 11:34 am
Tax free living and partnership in two years?
Stop whining, lawyers - that would work for me.
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Phil Istein | 29-Jul-2008 11:35 am
I agree
I'm with the last poster and disagree with the one before: you might tell themselves that they couldn't possible leave London or Paris because of the culture, but unless you've been to an art gallery, a performance or a historical building in the last two months, you're just kidding yourself that you still do.
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Ex Lawyer | 31-Jul-2008 2:22 am
Surrey v Dubai?
As someone said to me when trying to make this decision: You have the rest of your life to live in London/Surrey British suburbia, what is two years adventure in another country?
Now, if you have a family and kids etc then it's not that simple, but for single lawyers, or those without families, that was the best piece of advice. Not that Dubai really sounds that great...
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