Partner Borys Dackiw, who was involved in the establishment of the firm's Kyiv and Prague offices, has been appointed the managing partner of the Gulf, and is charged with the role of spearheading growth in the region.

When fully staffed, the new Abu Dhabi office will specialise in banking and finance (including project finance and Islamic finance), corporate and M&A, private equity, securities/capital markets, major projects (particularly in the oil and gas and infrastructure sectors), arbitration and real estate.

The firm has been active in the Middle East since the mid 1970s and it opened its first office in the region - in Manama Bahrain - in 1999.