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A recent DIFC Court of First Instance decision in Bhanu Choudhrie v Dhairya Choudhrie and Anita Choudhrie (CFI 098/2025) provides a timely reminder that ownership, governance authority and rights to benefit are distinct concepts in private wealth structures. In this article, Ahmad Sergieh, Partner and Head of Corporate (Dubai), Private Wealth, at Hadef & Partners considers what the decision means for DIFC foundations and the wider lessons for families designing governance and succession arrangements in the UAE.
As hotels become increasingly digital, protecting guest data is becoming as important as protecting the physical asset. In this article, Julie Beeton, Senior Counsel, Commercial at Hadef & Partners, explores the evolving UAE data protection landscape for the hospitality sector, including cross-border data transfers, data localisation, digital commerce and child digital safety.
The Shipping team at Hadef & Partners, comprising Partner, Mohamed Eissa, and Senior Associate, Maria Lezala, has authored the UAE chapter in the 13th edition of Lexology’s In-Depth – Shipping Law review.
Welcome to the September edition of Hadef Highlights – your bi-monthly update of all things legal and regulatory in the UAE and beyond.
Event commercial rights are rarely as straightforward as they appear. Sponsorship, broadcast, branding, ticketing, hospitality, digital content and other rights may be owned or controlled by different parties, creating the potential for overlap and disputes. In this article, Shonagh MacVicar, Senior Counsel, Commercial, explores how event organisers, sponsors, venues and rights holders can better manage these risks in the UAE through careful rights mapping, regulatory awareness and precise contractual drafting.
In this article, Zarghona Fazal, Partner, Arbitration and Head of DIFC/ADGM Litigation at Hadef & Partners and Michael Farchakh, Senior Associate, Dispute Resolution, discuss these decisions and their practical implications for both DIFC Court and arbitration practitioners and their clients.
The Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued Chairman of the CMA’s Board of Directors’ Resolution No. (18/RM) of 2026 to amend its technical services fee schedule, introducing several new fees while repealing 15 legacy fees. The changes amend the fee framework originally established under the Chairman of the Board of the Securities and Commodities Authority Resolution No. (32) of 2018 On the Fees of the Technical Services Payable to the Authority and align fee structures with the new regulatory regime under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2025 On the Regulation of the Capital Markets.
Further to our previous article on the introduction of the UAE’s new Central Bank Law, almost one year after the legislation came into force, a growing body of implementing regulations is giving greater substance to the new regulatory framework. With the transition period due to expire in September 2026, licensed financial institutions should be reviewing their compliance position now.
Hadef & Partners' Dispute Resolution team recently achieved what many principals may have assumed was impossible: the unilateral deregistration of a commercial agency that had subsisted for over 35 years, obtained directly through the Ministry, without recourse to the courts. This outcome establishes a direct, out-of-court pathway for principals seeking to disengage from unresponsive agents. It represents a significant development in UAE commercial agency practice. This article examines how Article 16 of Federal Decree-Law No. 3 of 2022 (the “Commercial Agencies Law”) provides principals with a direct administrative pathway to deregister unresponsive commercial agents without court proceedings.
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