Libby is a UK trained and qualified lawyer and trusted advisor with over 9 years’ post-qualification experience as a lawyer in private practice, plus 6 years’ experience pre-qualification.  She has worked with Eversheds, KPMG, Latham & Watkins and EY Law prior to joining Argentum Law.  Libby’s experience has been gained working on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters whilst in the UK and, since relocating to the UAE in 2019, Libby also advises on employment law, real estate, franchising, intellectual property, and data privacy issues.

Throughout her career, Libby has advised all manner of clients from start-ups and SMEs to government organizations, large private companies, and listed multinationals.  Libby particularly enjoys working with hospitality clients in the F&B space and tech start-ups.

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Selected representative roles and matters:

• Regularly advising a regional group across its broad range of franchises, on corporate and commercial law and matters relating to real estate, IP, employment, and litigious issues.
• Advising a Bahrain ministry on its multi-component commercial agreement for delivery of a key objective under the Kingdom’s national digital transformation agenda.
• Advising multi-national clients on key UAE employment law considerations in relation to their entities established in the UAE. Preparing employment contract templates for use in the UAE and advising on employment best practices, terminations, structuring of remuneration packages, and drafting bonus and incentive policies.
• Advising on commercial agency law, distribution contracts, and franchise agreements in the UAE for renowned car manufacturers, bar & restaurant franchises, and hotel chains.
• Advising an international fine dining restaurant chain on its data protection policies, agreements, notices, and consent forms across its UAE (mainland, DIFC, and ADGM) and Qatar operations.
• Advising a hospitality client on all matters relating to the asset transfer and assignment of a restaurant it operates in DIFC, including drafting the asset transfer agreement, LOIs with potential new purchasers, advising on strategy and negotiations, reviewing leases, assignment deeds, and ancillary documentation, plus advising on employment law issues relating to the termination and/or transfer of employees.
• Advising a regional restaurant group on intellectual property issues, restructuring, share transfers, and drafting sale deeds, IP licences, shareholder agreements and shareholder undertaking deeds.Providing legal due diligence services for clients on corporate transactions including a KSA sovereign wealth fund, multinational banks, oil & gas corporates, and large hospitality clients.
• Reviewing social media posts and digital media advertising for multinational financial institutions, car manufacturers, and hotel chains for local (UAE) law infringement and/or infringement of third-party IP rights, advising on commercial and legal risks and how to mitigate them.
• Advising a quasi-government owned telecoms company in Bahrain on its asset transfer agreement for major telecoms infrastructure.
• Advising a KSA government entity on its data privacy policies and providing a benchmark and gap analysis report against the French, Singapore and UAE data privacy legal frameworks.