Loyens & Loeff opens office in Dubai led by tax lawyer Stijn Janssen
Loyens & Loeff N.V. (attorneys, tax lawyers and civil law notaries) will open an office in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) on 1 January 2008. This makes Loyens & Loeff the first continental-European legal and tax service provider to take such a step.
The new office in Dubai will be Loyens & Loeff’s 18th office and will be situated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The DIFC is the bustling financial centre of the Middle East that houses hundreds of banks, financial organisations and other service providers.
Dubai is rapidly turning into one of the most important financial centres of the world, largely helped by the ever-increasing oil and gas revenues from the Middle East. The size of these investments in the region and their spread, as well as the continuing increase in activities by other European companies in the Gulf region, offer good prospects for Loyens & Loeff to make its name in this area. Aside from providing advice in the more traditional areas such as mergers, acquisitions and financing, office staff in the new office will also advise on investment protection, private equity and European investment funds and real estate funds. In the preliminary phase, many new clients have already received advice locally.
Initially, Loyens & Loeff’s multidisciplinary team dedicated to the Dubai office will consist of ten people. Stijn Janssen, a tax lawyer (presently in Amsterdam, but formerly in the Tokyo office), will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the office, along with partners Philip van Hilten and Waldo Kapoen (Amsterdam office). Gilles Dusemon, a partner (Luxembourg office), Marieke Kernet, an attorney (Luxembourg office), Gerard Kreijen, an attorney (Rotterdam office), Marieke Vreeburg, a notary candidate, and Pieter Schoorel, a tax lawyer (Amsterdam office) will also work there. Winifred Wolderling will begin as office manager starting from 1 January. Until recently, she was working at the Dutch Embassy in Abu Dhabi and at the Dutch Consulate in Dubai.