On this page
What you get
A written, partner-signed memorandum that answers the seven questions clients usually only get partial answers to during open-ended hourly consultations:
- Forum. The right venue for your dispute — Dubai courts, Abu Dhabi courts, Sharjah / Northern Emirates, DIFC Courts, ADGM Courts, DIAC, arbitrateAD, Tahkeem, RAK, or a foreign court — with the trade-offs spelt out.
- Evidence strength. What you have, what's missing, what needs to be preserved now before it disappears.
- Jurisdictional risk. Whether the contract clause holds, whether the counterparty can challenge venue, what the courts have done with similar clauses recently.
- Opponent asset position. What we can see on the public record — trade-licence status, real estate registrations, banking footprint — and how that affects recovery.
- Urgency & interim relief. Whether you need a precautionary attachment, travel ban or evidence preservation order in the next 7 days.
- Timeline & cost bands. Phase by phase, in fixed-fee or hybrid pricing where we can offer it.
- Settlement leverage. What the realistic settlement range is, and how to apply pressure to get there without over-paying.
- Probability range. A merits view, expressed honestly as a range, not a confident forecast.
- Recommended next action. One sentence, signed by the partner.
Why a paid assessment, not a free call
Free calls produce free advice and free outcomes. A paid 72-hour assessment forces a partner to actually read the contract, run the asset checks, and put a written view in your hands — which a court, a board, or a counterparty's lawyer will take seriously. Clients who buy clarity pursue the right disputes and walk away from the wrong ones.
Who it's for
The assessment is built for matters where the commercial decision matters more than the legal theory. Typical situations:
- You hold a contract, an arbitration award or a foreign judgement and you need to know whether UAE recovery is realistic.
- A counterparty has stopped paying, repudiated, or breached and you need to choose between filing, negotiating, and waiting.
- A claim has been served on you and you need to know how exposed you are before you reply.
- You're a foreign law firm with a UAE-touching dispute and you need a defensible written view to share with your client before retaining UAE counsel.
- You're a board member or general counsel weighing whether to authorise litigation or write off a receivable.
The 72-hour process
- Day 0 — intake. You complete the brief below and upload the contract, key correspondence and any prior pleadings to the firm's secure SharePoint folder. We run a same-day conflict check and confirm scope.
- Day 1 — partner review. A senior partner reads the file end-to-end. We pull public-record asset and licence data on the counterparty. We flag urgent procedural deadlines.
- Day 2 — analysis. Bilingual associates run the forum analysis, evidence audit and enforcement-route analysis. The partner builds the recommendation.
- Day 3 — delivery. You receive the written memorandum and a 30-minute partner debrief by video or in office. The memo is yours; you can use it internally or with referral counsel however you wish.
Documents we typically need
- The contract (or chain of contracts), governing-law clause and dispute-resolution clause.
- Key correspondence — emails, WhatsApp, demand letters, notices.
- Any pleadings, awards or judgements already in play.
- The counterparty's UAE trade licence number or registered name.
- A short timeline of events (your version — we'll stress-test it).
If documents are not in English or Arabic we handle translation in-house; bilingual reviews don't cost extra.
Fee & how acceptance works
The assessment is a fixed fee from AED 10,000 for a focused single-issue matter, scaling to AED 50,000 for multi-contract, cross-border or evidence-heavy disputes. We quote on intake. Payment is upfront, the engagement letter is electronic, and the fee is fully credited to your retainer if you instruct the firm on the substantive matter within 30 days.
We decline matters we cannot competently or commercially deliver in 72 hours — if your matter genuinely needs longer, we'll tell you on day 0 rather than take the fee and run.
Start an assessment
Brief us in three minutes. A partner replies the same business day with the fee, the conflict-check status, and the secure-upload link. Submissions do not create a solicitor–client relationship until conflict checks and engagement letter are confirmed in writing.
Frequently asked
What if my matter is urgent and 72 hours is too long?
Tell us at intake. For genuine emergencies — precautionary attachments, travel-ban risk, evidence preservation, deadline within 5 days — the partner desk responds the same business day with a faster, scoped engagement (typically under 24 hours, scoped fee). The 72-hour assessment is the standard product; the urgent variant is the exception.
Do I have to use you afterwards?
No. The assessment is a standalone deliverable. You can use it to brief other counsel, your board, or your insurer. If you do instruct us on the substantive matter within 30 days, the assessment fee is credited in full to your retainer.
Is this legal advice?
Yes — the memorandum is given by a UAE Ministry of Justice licensed advocate under a written engagement letter, and it is privileged in the same way as any other legal opinion from this firm. It is opinion-based; outcomes in litigation and arbitration depend on facts and forum that may emerge later.
Can foreign counsel buy this on behalf of an overseas client?
Yes. We work routinely as UAE co-counsel for foreign firms. The assessment is a clean, documentable deliverable you can pass to your client; we hold to a no-poaching policy and bill the foreign firm directly if that's cleaner. See also our UAE co-counsel page.
What if I want enforcement, not litigation, assessed?
Use the enforcement & asset-recovery page. Enforcement of a foreign judgement or arbitration award has its own checklist and a slightly different scope; the fee is similar.