Portability in Dubai is two questions, and they are answered from different instruments. The first is whether the client will instruct the new firm. The second is whether the partner is allowed to ask. Cabinet Resolution No. 9 of 2025, issued 10 February 2025 and effective 15 March 2025, approves the code of ethics under Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2022. Article 12(3) of that code requires a written agreement for an assignment, and the agreement names the lawyers or legal consultants who will do the work. The counterparty on that paper is the firm. Article 11 treats lawyers and legal consultants in the same firm as a single entity for a conflict between clients of that firm. A lateral does not carry the firm’s conflict wall, and the lateral does not carry the firm’s engagement letter, unless the client signs a new one.
Article 13(1)(e) of the same code prohibits a lawyer from using unlawful means to solicit clients: inducements, implied influence, a claimed affiliation, intermediaries whether paid or not, and unsolicited contact with litigants, prisoners or detainees. The Dubai Legal Affairs Department’s Circular No. 1 of 2024, dated 8 March 2024 on the Department’s bylaws index, tells licensed firms that solicitation by representatives, intermediaries and staff must stay consistent with the dignity and ethics of the profession, and it points at Article 45 of Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2022 on promotion by enticement. That is a conduct rule. It is not a two-year ban on a client who decides, unprompted, to follow a partner. The hiring firm’s diligence still has to show which clients will sign a new agreement, and which names on the pitch were billings the partner worked rather than relationships the partner holds.
The non-compete depends on who employs the partner. An onshore employee is under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. Article 10 allows a post-contract non-compete only where the work let the worker know the employer’s clients or work secrets. The clause must be specific as to time, place and type of work, only to the extent needed to protect legitimate interests, and the period must not exceed two years from the expiry of the contract. The clause is void if the employer terminates in violation of the decree. A claim is not heard once one year has passed from the date the employer discovered the violation. Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Article 12, adds the operating tests. The clause must state its geographical scope, its term of not more than two years, and work of a nature that causes significant harm to the employer’s legitimate interests. If the dispute is not settled, the employer bears the burden of proving the damage. The clause does not apply where termination is attributed to the employer or to the employer’s breach of legal or contractual obligations. The parties may agree in writing, after termination, that it will not apply. The worker is exempt if the worker or the new employer pays compensation not exceeding three months of the worker’s last wage, and the previous employer consents in writing, or if the contract ends during probation.
A partner employed by a DIFC establishment is under DIFC Law No. 2 of 2019, not under Article 10 of the federal decree. Article 4 applies the Law to a person with a place of business in the DIFC who employs someone, and to an individual employed by that person who is based in, or ordinarily works in or from, the DIFC, or who agreed in the contract to be subject to the Law. The Law does not set a two-year statutory cap on a restrictive covenant. What it does set is notice. Article 62(2) requires written notice of at least 7 days if continuous employment is under three months, 30 days if it is three months or more but under five years, and 90 days if it is five years or more, counting secondment toward that service. Article 62(3) allows a longer period in the contract. Article 62(5) allows the employer to require the employee not to attend work during all or part of the notice. That is the garden-leave power. It is not a non-compete, and it runs only as long as the notice.
The same Law’s Schedule 1 defines an Equity Partner as an Employee who owns a partnership interest, a membership interest, or shares in the employer or an affiliate. The Equity Partner is an Exempted Employee for the qualifying-scheme contribution only to the extent of drawings, profit distributions or dividends. The exemption is a pensions point. It does not take an employed equity partner out of Article 62. A partner who is in the DIFC only on secondment is different. Article 4(2)(a) leaves that person on an employment contract governed by another law, and Article 62 is not in the list of provisions that still apply during a secondment. The notice and the non-compete are then the home deed, often English or New York law, plus whatever Dubai license the individual holds. The brief has to say which of those three instruments — onshore employment, DIFC employment, or secondment — the people most likely to be approached are actually on.
The DIFC Courts have enforced a client restriction in an employment contract, and the case is not a law-firm partnership. In Najah v Namine [2024] DIFC SCT 038, the Small Claims Tribunal ordered AED 312,186 on a six-month clause that stopped the employee soliciting or working with clients the employee had served in the last twelve months. The clause did not stop the employee joining a competitor. The judgment treats the contract as governed by the DIFC Employment Law as amended by DIFC Law No. 4 of 2021. A hiring committee should read that as a reasonableness example, six months, clients the employee actually knew, not as a rule that every Dubai partner deed will be cut to six months. DIFC Law No. 1 of 2025, enacted 8 July 2025 and in force on the fifth business day after enactment, amends qualifying-scheme contributions. It does not rewrite Article 62.
The scorecard, before any name is discussed, is short.
- Employing entity. Which company or partnership pays the partner, and which law that contract chooses. DIFC place of business, onshore Dubai, or a secondment from London or New York.
- Client paper. Which matters are in a written agreement that names the current firm, under Article 12 of the 2025 code. Those matters move only if the client signs again.
- Non-compete instrument. Article 10 and Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022 if the partner is an onshore employee. The contract plus Article 62 if the partner is a DIFC employee. The home deed if Article 4(2)(a) applies.
- Buy-out. Onshore, a written consent plus compensation not exceeding three months’ wage can retire the non-compete. That sum is a wage multiple. It is not the retained fee.
- Solicitation. Article 13(1)(e) and Circular No. 1 of 2024 bar inducements and intermediaries. They do not estimate how much of a book will follow. That estimate is client-by-client, and it is done before a guarantee is written.
