DLA Piper has promoted seven lawyers to partner in response to the rapidly developing nature of its offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The promotions have been made ahead of DLA Piper's normal promotions timetable in order to reward the huge contribution being made to the development of both offices by high calibre lawyers.

The promotions of Simon Davidson, David Harley, Diane Jungmann, Gurmeet Kaur, Bruce Linke, Hinal Patel and Joycia Young take the total number of partners in DLA Piper's Middle East offices to 31.

The promotions were made across all key practice areas including Finance and Projects, Corporate, IT and IP.

David Church, regional managing partner for the Middle East at DLA Piper, said: "I am delighted to congratulate our seven newest partners on their promotion. Our Middle East practice has consolidated its position as a leading provider of business-led legal services and our practice groups are undergoing continuing growth to match client requirements in the region.

Lawyers promoted to partner:

Simon Davidson, Corporate Practice Group, Dubai: Simon's areas of practice include equity capital markets, private equity, M&As, joint ventures and general corporate advisory work. He also advises on corporate restructuring and has clients across all sectors.

David Harley, Finance and Projects Practice Group, Abu Dhabi: David specialises in energy, infrastructure and resource projects. He has broad-ranging experience for clients in the energy and resource sectors, both in private practice and in-house roles. David also has extensive experience in general corporate and commercial work, including joint ventures, acquisitions and due diligence.

Diane Jungmann, Corporate Practice Group, Dubai: Diane's areas of practice include M&As, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, as well as general corporate advisory work. She also has extensive experience advising on infrastructure projects and privatisations, acting for project sponsors, investment banks and government bodies.

Gurmeet Kaur, Finance and Projects Practice Group, Dubai: Gurmeet advises on the commercial, construction and operational aspects of projects in the water, energy, social infrastructure and property sectors. She has significant PPP experience and has worked on projects in the hospital, schools and utility sectors.

Bruce Linke, Finance and Projects Practice Group, Dubai: Bruce is a projects and construction lawyer with extensive experience of contract drafting, negotiation, contract administration and dispute resolution. He acts for project companies, developers and lenders on large-scale property developments and infrastructure projects.

Hinal Patel, Technology, Media and Commercial Practice Group, Dubai: Hinal is a transactional lawyer with a particular focus on technology-related outsourcing. He has extensive experience advising on technology and telecommunications contracts; this includes matters related to procurement, supply, managed services, outsourcing and strategic partnership arrangements within the technology sector.

Hinal advises both private and public organisations across a variety of sectors.

Joycia Young, Technology, Media and Commercial Practice Group, Dubai: Joycia heads the Intellectual Property practice in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa region. She advises on the full range of transactional and contentious issues related to trademarks, domain names and copyright. One of her main areas of focus is advising on brand protection strategies.

In January 2008 DLA Piper promoted 69 lawyers to its partnership across all its offices globally, three of which were in Dubai. The newly elected partners in Abu Dhabi and Dubai take the total number of partner promotions at DLA Piper to 76 for 2008. Partner promotions for 2009 will be announced in January. - Reuters