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. 

James practices commercial litigation, arbitration and ADR and has specific expertise in complex litigation, high value asset recovery, enforcement and financial services litigation.

He has resolved business critical disputes before the DIFC, onshore UAE and English Courts and under the rules of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), the Abu Dhabi Commercial Conciliation and Arbitration Centre (ADCCAC), the ICC Court of Arbitration, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), and the DIFC-LCIA.

James represents banks, global IT companies, high profile funds and litigation funders. He also advises defence and security companies in the region on most areas of their business, including contracts with GHQ, the Presidential Guard, Tawazun Economic Council, issues with local agents and offset obligations.

James has more than 12 years’ experience in the Middle East and has rights of audience before the DIFC Courts. He is a member of the IBA Arab Regional Forum and the ADGM Court advisory group.

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.

Sara has over 18 years of experience as a commercial disputes, white collar crime and regulatory disputes lawyer between Australia, England & Wales and the UAE, and has been permanently based in the region since 2013.

Sara acts in complex, usually cross border, commercial litigation in the DIFC, ADGM and English Courts and onshore UAE Courts, as well as arbitration matters before local and international centres, with a focus on shareholder and partnership, financial service, fraud asset tracing and recovery, contentious insolvency and enforcement matters.

Sara was previously a senior Federal Prosecutor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions office in Australia and also worked for the Serious Fraud Office in the UK.

Sara is one of the few lawyers listed in Who’s Who Legal: Asset recovery consecutively from 2018 to 2024, is a founding member of the Dubai network of the International Women in Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation and is the current Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Asset Recovery Committee.

Sara has co authored the UAE chapter for CDR on Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery and regularly attends and speaks at global flagship fraud, asset tracing and recovery events and conferences globally.

Sara was named the Lexis Nexis Women in Law GCC Private Practice Lawyer of the Year in 2024 and ranked as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500 EMEA 2024.

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.

Patrick is Head of Charles Russell Speechlys LLP's Middle East practice (conducted from offices in Bahrain, Dubai and Qatar). Patrick is also Chair of the Global Markets Group, which co-ordinates the firm's international activities.

He specialises in all areas of dispute resolution with particular emphasis on banking, intellectual property, insolvency, professional negligence and company disputes.

Patrick has conducted litigation and arbitration in Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Italy, France, Ukraine, the USA and in all the GCC states as well as in all the courts within the English jurisdiction.

Patrick leads the award-winning Middle East Disputes team which won the ‘Bahrain Dispute Resolution Law Firm of The Year’ award at the Chambers Middle East Awards 2019. He is also a leading partner in the firm's International Arbitration Group which won the ‘International Arbitration Team of the Year’ award at the Legal Business Awards 2018.

Additionally, Patrick leads the Firm’s successful Bahrain office which won the ‘Bahrain Law Firm of The Year’ award at The Oath Legal Awards in 2018, 2019 and 2022 as well as the Firm’s UAE office which won the ‘UAE Law Firm of The Year’ award at The Oath Legal Awards in 2022 and the Firm’s Qatar office which was awarded ‘Qatar Law Firm of The Year’ at The Oath Legal Awards in 2023.

Patrick is one of the lead partners acting in the administration of Awal Bank B.S.C. which has involved over 75 different litigation and arbitration cases in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the USA and the Cayman Islands.

In addition to acting as Counsel in Arbitrations Patrick also sits as an Arbitrator and is included in the Legal 500 Middle East Arbitration Powerlists 2022 and 2023.

Patrick is admitted to practice in England and Wales and was awarded a CIArb Diploma in International Arbitration in July 2018.

He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in September 2018.