Dubai SME And DLA Piper ME Join Forces To Host Legal Seminar

SME100 firms get practical legal guidance at knowledge development seminar

Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED) mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, and the global law firm DLA Piper have teamed up to offer guidance to SMEs on a range of corporate and commercial issues. The two sides have signed a memorandum of understanding and accordingly, DLA Piper Middle East hosted a half day seminar for SMEs recently in Dubai.

Experts from DLA Piper covered a range of topics including company structuring; corporate governance; current commercial practices; corporate financing issues; real estate and property leasing; employment and labour law issues; IP/IT issues as well as litigation, arbitration and regulatory issues at the seminar.

The seminar was part of the capability development and knowledge initiatives being progressively rolled out by Dubai SME for firms listed in its Dubai SME100 ranking. Launched under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, Dubai SME100 ranks the top-performing SMEs in Dubai to help groom them into bigger, better and more sustainable enterprises, and support them through their growth into larger, internationally-focused companies.

The topics covered in the seminar were of particular interest to businesses seeking to expand into new markets and also helped participants understand key legal issues relevant to their businesses.

“Dubai SME is delighted to partner DLA Piper to offer added-value services to our current batch of SME100 companies in the area of due diligence, which is often overlooked. Dubai SME sees this as a key area for growth SMEs especially if they are seeking new markets and need more complex legal support and understanding of their liabilities. We believe that the SME100 companies will find the knowledge and experience imparted by DLA Piper extremely useful as they strive to move to the next level of growth and development,” commented Abdul Baset Al Janahi, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai SME.

"The raft of current legislation relevant to small and medium sized enterprises can appear complex to navigate at first, and through the seminar we aimed to shed some light on ways in which businesses can seek to understand the framework as a means of developing and growing their respective organisations and enhancing their competitive advantage," said Murad Abida, Partner and Head of the Corporate Group at DLA Piper Middle East.

"The SME sector is a key part of Dubai’s economy and its continued growth and we are delighted to partner with Dubai SME on such a valuable event," Abida concluded.

Emirate:  Dubai

Date: Feb 5, 2013

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