Simmons & Simmons has confirmed that some of its staff in the Middle East are to be made redundant.
The cuts are limited to the firm's Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices. They're pretty small offices as it is, with only around a dozen lawyers (bear in mind that at the height of the boom, the likes of DLA Piper had over 100 lawyers in Dubai alone). But even these numbers can no longer be supported by countries that seem to survive solely on oil, duty free sales and Indian slave labour.
Work in the region has clearly slumped, and lawyers at other firms may be feeling nervous too. French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel for example shut down all its offices in the Middle East just over a year ago. A spokeswoman for Simmons confirmed that the redundancies were "due to ongoing market conditions in the Middle East".
She said that "a small number of lawyers and business services staff have been affected in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We have offered affected people roles in other offices where feasible and, where not, we will support them in finding new roles. Our Doha office and affiliated office in Saudi Arabia are unaffected by the review."
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The cuts are limited to the firm's Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices. They're pretty small offices as it is, with only around a dozen lawyers (bear in mind that at the height of the boom, the likes of DLA Piper had over 100 lawyers in Dubai alone). But even these numbers can no longer be supported by countries that seem to survive solely on oil, duty free sales and Indian slave labour.
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How the Dubai economy works |
Work in the region has clearly slumped, and lawyers at other firms may be feeling nervous too. French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel for example shut down all its offices in the Middle East just over a year ago. A spokeswoman for Simmons confirmed that the redundancies were "due to ongoing market conditions in the Middle East".
She said that "a small number of lawyers and business services staff have been affected in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We have offered affected people roles in other offices where feasible and, where not, we will support them in finding new roles. Our Doha office and affiliated office in Saudi Arabia are unaffected by the review."
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This is a tiny number of redundancies at one firm. Lots of other firms (particularly American firms) are ramping up their presence in the region. Dubai clearly had a big bust as did lots of other countries but the region is doing quite well now all things considered and the much forecast "sinking back into the sand" certainly hasn't happened.