James is Managing Partner of Dubai and Head of Dispute Resolution in the Middle East. He joined DWF in 2017 from a Band 1 listed firms Abu Dhabi office where he was Head of Dispute Resolution.

Walid is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department in Dubai. He specialises in complex Commercial and Corporate arbitration and litigation, often with cross-border elements.

Walid joined Hadef & Partners in 2005. During that time, he has developed specialist knowledge of managing large scale, multi-jurisdictional disputes and has acted on a number of high-profile banking and real estate matters. Walid advises a diverse group of clients; including publicly traded and multi-national companies, as well as high net worth individuals on various contentious matters.

Walid also specialises in local and international asset tracings and recovery, advises on financial crimes as well as on anti-corruption and anti-bribery issues. He further advises on extradition and mutual legal assistance as well as on sanctions and anti-money laundering matters.

Walid has a Juris Doctorate and is admitted to the Massachusetts State Bar. Prior to joining Hadef & Partners, he practiced in the US, in both Chicago and Boston. He routinely lectures, and sits on various panels that deal with a variety of issues relating to regional legal trends and developments. Walid is fluent in English, Arabic and French.

Jeremy Bressman focuses his practice on white-collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement matters, cross-border investigations, and parallel complex civil litigation. He represents Middle East-based corporate clients and individuals facing criminal allegations and enforcement proceedings, often conducted by multiple U.S. government agencies including, among others, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Prior to joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Bressman practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP where he was a member of the litigation team. Earlier in his career, he clerked for the Honorable Nancy F. Atlas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Ghassan heads the Arabic regional litigation practice in the Middle East and specialises in all areas of dispute resolution with a particular emphasis on construction, commercial, civil, banking, real estate and criminal matters. Ghassan has over 23 years’ experience in litigation and dispute resolution. His extensive in-depth experience in civil, Sharia, commercial, real estate, banking, construction and criminal laws have enabled him to represent clients in some of the region’s most high profile and complex cases. Offering a full scope of litigation services from drafting to implementation of case strategies locally and internationally, Ghassan is one of few litigators who won multi-billion dollar cases for clients and advised on high complex and cross border disputes. In addition, Ghassan possesses thorough expertise in matters of civil, administrative, real estate, banking and Sharia’h law.

Ghassan is admitted to practise in Lebanon.

James is a partner and leads the Forensic Department at Grant Thornton UAE.

He is a highly experienced forensic, anti-fraud and anti-financial crime professional with 20 years' experience in professional practice in the UK and Middle East. Based in Dubai, he joined Grant Thornton after 18 years with a Big 4 firm both in the UK and the Middle East, latterly as ME regional head of financial crime.

James has led numerous complex assignments covering financial crime, fraud risk assessment, fraud investigation, dispute resolutions, corporate intelligence and digital forensics (including e-Discovery and data analytics). His experience covers most industry sectors, particularly including financial services, government, construction, energy/oil and gas, healthcare, telecoms, family businesses, retail and consumer.

James also regularly presents at industry events and seminars on a range of topics.