In brief: Hill Taylor opens Middle East office

Shipping and insurance-based firm Hill Taylor Dickinson has opened a Dubai office staffed by partner Andrew Newitt and associate Rula Dajani, who move from the firm's London office. Hill Taylor opened a Piraeus office two years ago and more recently an office in Hong Kong. Newitt said both these had been successful, proving that opening a regional office "is a good way of servicing a local client base". The firm has had increasing Middle Eastern involvement in recent years. "Within a week of me coming here I had to visit Muscat to deal with salvage and when I came back I had to investigate a collision in the Suez Canal," he said.