Michael specialises in employment law, working in the UAE and advising on employment issues across a number of jurisdictions in the Middle East. Michael advises clients on compliance with the Federal Labour Law as well as the regulation in the free zones including the DIFC law in the Dubai International Finance Centre and ADGM law in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Michael works closely with the DMCC mediation team, assisting with training and the DMCC legal clinics.

Michael has experience advising on a wide number of employment-related issues including both contentious and non-contentious matters. In particular, Michael advises on employee relations, dismissals, employee litigation, contractual queries/disputes, breach of privacy/confidential information, restrictive covenants and also on large, multi-jurisdictional employment law projects across the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Michael handles all aspects of employment law issues, including advising on:

• breach of restrictive covenants and theft of confidential information for a UAE based client in the oil industry;

• a global contract review and harmonisation project for a multinational construction client;

• a redundancy project for a software client with employees across the GCC region;

• litigation relating a contentious exit for a senior employee working in the financial sector; and

• a variety of employment law disputes such as contentious terminations, breach of restrictive covenants, with DMCC based employers in association with the DMCC Disputes Centre Legal Clinics; and

• large multinational transactions, including acquisitions and advising on the impact of business restructuring, visa transfers and the effect of organisational changes on employees.