Partners head for Aus as crisis rumours hit DLA Piper's Middle East offices
05 March 2010
Things are going from bad to worse at DLA Piper's Middle East offices, with rumours of partners disappearing and office space being sold off.

Insiders have told RollOnFriday that there simply isn't enough work for the massive number of partners the firm recently hired for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and a raft of them have now been shipped off to DLA Phillips Fox in Australia.

DLA Piper organises transport home for some partners yesterday

The departures have left a lot of empty desks - so many, in fact, that the firm is rumoured to have been selling off office space in an attempt to recoup some losses.

A spokeswoman said, "Last year we reduced our resource levels, through redundancy, redeployment, natural wastage and suspicious gardening accidents. In order to align our office space with our existing needs we are considering sub-leasing around 40% of our Dubai office space. We do not intend to reduce our office space in Abu Dhabi. We work very closely with DLA Phillips Fox as part of our strategy to support clients across Asia Pacific.

In line with that strategy, two lawyers have relocated to Australia and we have another lawyer there on secondment, who will return to our Middle East practice in due course. In addition, two former partners from our Dubai office are working on significant projects in Australia and continue to support our practice in the Middle East."

And breathe.