Reed Smith has appointed a new corporate partner in Abu Dhabi, hiring in-house counsel Maher Al Mannaee from National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).
Al Mannaee has experience in both public and private M&A. He is an Emirati national and previously worked for Standard Chartered in Dubai and Singapore.
Commenting on the hire, the head of Reed Smith’s Middle East group, Vince Gordon, said it was in reaction to the increasing number of requests for corporate advice from the firm’s clients.
Reed Smith was among the first international firms to launch in Abu Dhabi, opening the branch in 1978. The firm expanded its UAE operation in 2006 when it set up in Dubai. Al Mannaee’s hire takes the firm’s tally of partners focussed on the Emirates to six.
The Middle East hire is the second step the US outfit has taken to develop its international corporate capacity in 2014. In January it launched in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana – the firm’s first Central Asian office – after hiring two corporate partners Vladimir Shuster and Arman Tastanbekov. The pair joined from Morgan Lewis and White & Case respectively.