Lawyers express concerns
International law firms operating in the United Arab Emirates are calling lawyers back to the office, with some staff expressing unease about the timing of the move.
Jones Day is understood to have asked its Dubai lawyers to return from today, while Cleary Gottlieb is aiming to resume its standard in-person schedule at its Abu Dhabi base from 4 May. Other firms are encouraging staff to head back but have stopped short of setting a date.
The backstory is that many lawyers had been working remotely for around two months, having decamped to locations across Europe and Asia after firms activated security protocols at the outbreak of the US-Israeli war against Iran. Cleary is said to be covering relocation costs for those needing to make the journey back.
Some lawyers have raised concerns about the decision to push ahead with a return to the office, with one telling Legal Cheek the situation remains “genuinely precarious given the unpredictability of the current US administration” and “the fact that the ceasefire has no permanent framework behind it”.
Donald Trump last week extended the two-week truce indefinitely shortly before it was due to expire, a move that will have offered some reassurance, though with no permanent framework in place and the memory of Iranian strikes on Gulf states still fresh, it has done little to fully dispel the sense of uncertainty for some.
Jones Day didn’t respond to Legal Cheek’s request for comment.
What I cannot abide is the sheer idiocy of certain partners who equate personal security concerns with a lack of commitment to the region. Let us be clear: solicitors did not sign up to practise in unsafe environments, nor should they be expected to. To suggest otherwise is both pathetic and profoundly misguided.
An individual’s security and that of their family must always take precedence over client demands or firm politics. Work can be conducted remotely with no diminution of professional standards. Those clients and partners who possess even a modicum of intelligence and empathy will recognise this truth. The rest are precisely the sort of people one would not wish to work alongside.
I am fortunate that my own firm’s management in Qatar, demonstrate both competence and humanity. But the broader profession must confront this toxic culture: the notion that lawyers should risk their lives to prove loyalty is not only absurd, it is morally bankrupt. Solicitors are officers of the court, not cannon fodder for corporate vanity.