Herbies gets its Norton Rose finance partners at last

Herbert Smith has secured a departure date for two Dubai-based Norton Rose partners after several months of negotiation.

Finance partners Nadim Khan and Zubair Mir quit Norton Rose last October to launch Herbert Smith’s new Dubai office. After months of wrangling the duo are now due to take up their new roles on 1 March 2007.

The departure of Khan and Mir was a major blow to Norton Rose’s Dubai arm, which also suffered from the resignation of corporate partner Tahir Ahmed last month, who is leaving to join Ashurst. The move leaves Norton Rose with just two partners in Dubai, and one in Bahrain.

Norton Rose has a reputation for taking a tough stance on departing partners. The four-partner securities team of Jonathan Walsh, Vincent Keaveny, Bruce Somer and Ian Porter, who quit to join Baker & McKenzie's London arm in May, were originally held to a 12-month notice period.

However, the firm later agreed that the team could move earlier after it secured a third lateral hire to plug the gap left by the partners' departures.