International law firm Clyde & Co has expanded its regional corporate practice with the appointment of Barton Hoggard and Lee Keane, bringing total MENA-region partner numbers to 37, and corporate partner numbers to 15 across the firm's five regional offices.
Among other things, the recent appointments strengthen the firm's on-the-ground corporate capability in Doha and add additional expertise to the firm's healthcare, transportation and logistics sector offerings.
Based in Clyde & Co's Dubai office, Barton Hoggard has been in the Middle East since the beginning of 2008 and specialises in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, structuring advice and principal agreements for private placements and joint ventures.
Barton has extensive transactional experience across a number of sectors including heavy industry, healthcare and logistics and acts for a number of listed companies from Europe and the US as well as SME's and local family groups in connection with their investments throughout the MENA region.
Lee Keane rejoins Clyde & Co as a corporate partner in Clyde & Co's Doha office, having spent the last year in-house at Al Tayer Group, a privately-held, diversified company headquartered in Dubai, with over 7,900 employees and operations in 12 countries. Lee has been based in the Middle East since 2008 and was formerly a senior associate in the firm's Dubai office for 5 years.
Lee's practice covers domestic and cross-border transactional work, including advising on investment and emerging market strategies, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, complex joint venture agreements and restructurings. He has significant experience in the retail, food and beverage and healthcare sectors as well as advising on complex franchise and distribution arrangements.
Niall O'Toole, head of Clyde & Co's regional corporate practice, said: “We are delighted to welcome Barton and to have Lee return to Clyde & Co. Both have extensive regional experience and sector knowledge, which complement our existing practice."
"The size of our regional corporate practice means that we have dedicated specialists across core global and regional sectors such as transportation, education, healthcare and logistics. Our sector driven approach ensures that our corporate lawyers remain abreast of sector developments, are extremely knowledgeable in their field and can add real value to our clients transactions."
Last year, Clyde & Co’s regional corporate team launched a Middle East Deal Study - the first of its kind in the region, analysing data from 86 of the M&A and joint venture transactions worked on by the Clyde & Co MENA team in 2012. The study establishes a baseline for transactional ‘market practice’ in the Middle East, providing unique insight into the trends and norms of doing business in the region
Clyde & Co has 5 MENA region offices operating as a single unit: Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; and Tripoli in Libya. The firm formalised its presence in the Middle East in 1989 after many years of client activity, and today has over 300 staff in the region.
Internationally, with over 2,500 staff and 37 offices across 6 continents, Clyde & Co is particularly well known for expertise in relation to international trade, emerging markets and in relation to high profile and/or difficult dispute resolution work. The firm’s core sectors of focus are infrastructure; international trade; insurance; transportation and natural resources.
