Geraldine is the managing partner of the Abu Dhabi office and she heads up the commercial practice group across the Middle East.
Geraldine spent the first eight years of her career with Eversheds Sutherland in the UK before relocating to the Middle East in 2008 to set up Eversheds Sutherland's Abu Dhabi office, where she has since been instrumental in the growth and development of the firm’s UAE business.
Geraldine’s client base is largely comprised of international companies looking to enter into, or expand within, the Middle East region. She has considerable experience of working with such organisations and helping them navigate the legal, regulatory and cultural landscape.
Geraldine has over 20 years’ experience spanning all areas of commercial law. This includes strategic contracts, complex drafting of high-value and high-profile arrangements as well as running template and contract drafting projects for clients. Geraldine and her team advice across the range of areas such as competition, franchising, distribution, logistics, regulatory and compliance and trading arrangements. She is an active member of the TMT sector and leads digitalisation projects and technology outsourcing projects, as well as advising on cyber security, use of cloud services, software licensing, e-commerce and data protection. Whilst advice is grounded in local laws, Geraldine and her team ensure it is pragmatic and strategic taking into account the needs and objectives of the client.
Geraldine established the UAE employment practice in 2008 and continues to run this strategically important part of the UAE business. The employment practice provides contentious and non-contentious support to local and international clients. Geraldine and her team provide advice across the spectrum of employment, pensions and immigration matters including global mobility, pension registrations/end of service obligations, workforce restructuring, employee transfers, disciplinary investigations, executive exits as well as sensitive advice on whistleblowing or actions which may constitute criminal activity/cause reputational harm. The practice supports clients with production of employment contracts, handbooks, policies, settlement agreements, workforce communications, notices, waivers and so on. Our litigation unit, supported by Arabic speaking capability, aims to ease the burden of our clients and providing strategic direction at each juncture. Our employment practice and our litigation team work together to support DIFC and ADGM employment proceedings which are typically international, high-value and high-profile.
Due to Geraldine’s regional role she is highly experienced in managing cross border mandates and working with our teams across the region to deliver consolidated regional advice to our clients.
Geraldine works across a range of sectors and industries and is a pragmatic solution driven lawyer that seeks to obtain the best outcome for her clients recognising that many international companies are seeking to grow and operate in what might be an unfamiliar environment.
Some of Geraldine’s recent commercial experience includes:
- running a high value and strategically important digital transformation project and leading a team of English and Arabic speakers to cater for the dual language negotiations, contract drafting and regulatory reviews
- supporting a high-profile global client on their expansion across UAE and into KSA by working on the joint venture downstream documents consisting of management agreement, licensing agreement and services agreement structuring a multi-jurisdiction trading arrangement together with profit sharing model
- acting for a privately owned UAE headquartered company on their range of commercial issues including drafting their entire suite of commercial contracts, redesigning their procurement processes, overseeing legal arrangements in respect of their new procurement technology and providing strategic advice on the application of laws and regulations to their trading activities
- advising a client in a pre-litigation dispute relating to a complex technology project including advice on termination, segregation of IP, protection of assets and devising key settlement objectives
- providing a full range of contract drafting services for UAE companies across a number of sectors including TMT, financial services and heavy industries, including, for example a review of underlying procurement processes, preparing an improvement plan supported by the creation of a suite of 20 templates and providing ad hoc contract drafting support on an ongoing basis
- acting for a large UAE education provider on the range of their commercial matters including drafting complex bespoke arrangements, overseeing complex research interfacing with federal government bodies, providing crucial and time sensitive advice on strategic and/or high risk legal issues as they arise
- undertaking various regulatory reviews on sensitive or strategic important areas relating to business operations and working with the team on reviews of primary legislation in Arabic and comparative reviews across different jurisdictions and working with the client to formulate strategic planning
Some of Geraldine’s recent employment experience includes:
- advising on highly sensitive employment matters relating to pornography and sexual harassment – working with clients to advise on steps to be taken as well as risk/reputational harm mitigation
- assisting clients with investigations and disciplinary actions – advising on evidence gathering, witness statements, legal responsibilities together with internal policies as well providing strategic and pragmatic advice on approach and preferred outcomes
- advising on workforce restructuring, transfers and harmonisation projects – supporting with advice on legal requirements, recommended processes, step papers and employee facing documents
- advising on employer liabilities and mitigation strategies - arising due to, for example, non-compliance with pension registration requirements, breaches of labour law obligations, improper immigration practices and outdated processes
- advising on senior and executive departures – including advice on handling and recommended approaches in addition to legal arrangements and supporting with bespoke settlement documentation
- advising clients on contentious matters – in particular to secure settlement pre-proceedings or to defend matters through court proceedings and ensuring the UAE civil procedural requirements are met with minimal input from our client and managing translations of documents
- preparing suites of employment documentation – including employment contracts, policies, handbooks and employee-facing communications
- co-ordinating advice across the region – including in areas such as regulatory change, legal requirements, contracts and handbooks
Geraldine and her team have successfully conducted a number of trainings including:
- an annual event in London each year for over a decade
- on sexual harassment
- on appropriate conduct/behaviours
- general training to quasi-government body on employment laws
- on the new UAE Labour Law
- on agency arrangements across the region
"Geraldine has a wealth of UAE knowledge having lived in the region for a considerable amount of time. She understands who we are and always strives to provide us with specific and tailored advice."
Chambers Global 2022
"Geraldine’s experience in this region shines through in the clear and concise advice that she offers. She is incredibly receptive and will try hard to accommodate very last-minute requests for assistance."
Chambers Global 2022
“She impresses both for the wealth of transactional and technical experience she brings, but also her ability to form an integral and valued part of the team.”
Chambers Global 2021
England & Wales (2002)
- Legal Diploma and Legal Practice Course (Distinction), University of Birmingham, UK, 2000
- BA in Political Science and Government, Durham University, UK, 1997