When a global law firm decides that a region deserves its own dedicated tax practice, rather than an occasional cross-border advisory service delivered from elsewhere, it says something about where the work is heading. That is precisely the message Simmons & Simmons has sent with the appointment of Hannah Shipley as a partner in Dubai, where she will lead the firm’s Middle East tax practice.
Shipley arrives with more than twenty years of experience in financial services tax. Over that time she has advised clients across the Middle East and internationally, with a particular concentration on the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, three of the region’s most active and most closely watched markets. Her hire, announced as part of a wider round of ten lateral partner appointments across the firm’s international network, is being presented as a significant enhancement of Simmons & Simmons’ regional capability.
For a firm that recently marked three decades in the Middle East, the move is less a new departure than a deliberate next step: building depth in a specialism that has become central to almost every significant transaction, fund launch and corporate restructuring in the Gulf.
A tax lead built for the region’s financial sector
Shipley’s practice covers a broad span of tax work. It includes tax advisory, operational tax, transactional support, tax controversy and tax policy. That mix matters because tax questions rarely arrive in neat categories. A fund manager setting up a vehicle in an onshore or free-zone jurisdiction may need structuring advice, help with day-to-day compliance, support when an authority raises questions, and a view on how regulation is likely to move over the next few years. Having one senior adviser who can span all of those areas is a considerable convenience for clients who would otherwise juggle several providers.
Her focus is firmly on financial institutions, asset managers and investment funds. That is no accident. The Gulf’s financial centres, from the Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market to the growing ecosystem around Riyadh, have spent the past decade positioning themselves as destinations for global capital and talent. Banks, private credit platforms, sovereign-linked investors, family offices and hedge fund and private equity managers are all expanding their regional presence, and each of them has to answer the same set of questions about where to locate, how to structure and how to stay compliant.
Shipley herself has said she is excited to join the firm and to help build a dedicated tax practice in the region. The language is telling: the ambition is not simply to add one more adviser to an existing team, but to construct something with its own identity, its own client relationships and its own momentum.
Muneer Khan, the firm’s Middle East regional head, described her arrival as a key milestone in the growth of the firm’s business in the region. Coming from the person responsible for the overall strategy, that framing places tax squarely alongside the firm’s other priority areas rather than as a supporting function.
Why tax, and why now
The timing is hardly coincidental. For much of the modern history of the Gulf, tax was a comparatively minor consideration for businesses operating there. The absence of broad corporate income tax was part of the region’s appeal, and advisers spent more time on structuring for the home jurisdictions of their clients than on local obligations.
That picture has changed dramatically. The introduction of value added tax across several Gulf economies, followed by the UAE’s federal corporate tax regime, signalled that the region was moving towards a more conventional fiscal architecture. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has long operated a system built around zakat and corporate income tax, and Qatar has its own framework for taxing business profits. Add to that the international push towards a global minimum tax, and Gulf governments have been adjusting domestic rules to align with global standards while trying to protect their competitive positions.
For businesses, the result is a steady stream of new obligations, new guidance and new questions. Groups that once treated the Middle East as a low-complexity jurisdiction now have to consider registration, reporting, transfer pricing, substance requirements and the interaction between local rules and those of their home countries. Financial institutions and funds, which often operate through layered structures across multiple jurisdictions, feel those pressures acutely.
In that environment, advisers who understand both the technical detail and the commercial realities of the region are in high demand. A practice led by someone who has spent two decades in financial services tax, and who has worked across the three markets that matter most, is well placed to meet that demand.
Tax controversy and policy: a growing part of the picture
Two strands of Shipley’s practice deserve particular attention: tax controversy and tax policy.
As tax regimes mature, enforcement and dispute resolution inevitably follow. Authorities build up their audit capabilities, taxpayers learn where the boundaries lie, and disagreements about interpretation become more common. Clients increasingly want advisers who can not only structure transactions correctly but also stand beside them when an authority asks difficult questions. A tax lead with controversy experience gives the firm the ability to support clients through the full lifecycle of a tax issue, from planning to dispute.
Policy work is a less visible but equally valuable contribution. Gulf governments regularly consult with industry as they refine legislation, and advisers who engage constructively with that process can help shape rules that are workable for businesses and consistent with the region’s ambitions. For clients, early insight into the direction of travel can be as valuable as technical analysis of rules already in force.
A regional footprint taking shape
The tax appointment does not stand alone. It sits within a broader programme of investment that has seen Simmons & Simmons expand its physical presence and its senior bench across the Gulf.
The firm opened an office in Riyadh in June 2025, giving it a direct presence in the region’s largest economy at a time when Saudi Arabia is pursuing an ambitious programme of diversification, infrastructure development and capital market growth. It has since added partners in the Saudi capital, including a partner focused on energy, natural resources, infrastructure and construction, a sector grouping the firm has been building out across the region.
At the same time, the firm has launched an office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, adding a base in the UAE capital’s international financial centre to its established Dubai presence. For a tax practice focused on financial institutions and funds, that is a particularly relevant addition. The two largest Emirates have distinct but complementary financial ecosystems, and clients are increasingly active in both.
The Dubai team has also been reinforced in other areas. The firm has made senior hires in corporate and mergers and acquisitions, and has named a new lead for its Middle East disputes and investigations team. Taken together, these appointments suggest a coordinated effort to build a full-service offering in the region rather than a collection of isolated specialisms.
The tax hire completes an important part of that picture. Transactions and funds nearly always have a tax dimension, and having a dedicated tax partner in the same office as the corporate, finance and disputes teams makes it easier to deliver integrated advice.
Part of a wider global expansion
Shipley’s appointment was announced alongside nine other lateral partner hires across seven of the firm’s offices, in a round that included further tax, corporate and financial services regulation partners in London, Dublin and Singapore. Commentators have described the approach as a steady, sector-led growth strategy supported by sustained investment in talent, under managing partner Emily Monastiriotis, who took the role in May 2025.
The firm’s tax capability is being strengthened elsewhere too. A new London tax partner joined from the tax disputes team at a Big Four firm in the same round of hires, a reminder that tax controversy is a priority across the network and not only in the Gulf.
For clients in the Middle East, that international depth is a distinct advantage. Many of the region’s most important transactions involve cross-border elements, whether that is a European manager raising capital from Gulf investors, a regional bank structuring a product for global distribution or an international group establishing a regional headquarters. A Dubai-based tax lead who can draw on colleagues in London, Dublin, Singapore and beyond is well placed to handle that complexity.
What the hire means for clients
For clients, the practical benefits fall into several categories.
Local expertise with international reach. Shipley’s experience spans the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as international matters, which means she can advise on how regional rules interact with the tax positions of clients’ home jurisdictions. That interaction is often where the most difficult questions arise.
Integrated support for fund and financial services clients. With transactional, operational and advisory tax capability under one roof, clients launching or managing funds, or setting up regulated entities, can obtain structuring advice and ongoing compliance support from a single team.
Help navigating a changing regime. As new rules, guidance and enforcement practices emerge, clients need advisers who can translate developments into practical decisions. A dedicated regional practice means that horizon scanning and client communication can be done by people working in the market every day.
Support when things get contentious. Tax controversy experience provides reassurance that clients will have experienced support if an authority challenges a position, rather than having to find a specialist at short notice.
The competitive picture
The Middle East legal market has become markedly more competitive in recent years. International firms have been opening offices, hiring partners and expanding into new jurisdictions, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where changes to the licensing framework have made direct presence more attractive. Regional firms, meanwhile, have been investing in their own international connections and talent.
In that setting, the ability to offer a credible tax practice is a real differentiator. Clients choosing advisers for complex mandates tend to look for firms that can cover the whole transaction, and tax is often the area where gaps are most apparent. By placing an experienced financial services tax partner in Dubai and committing to build a dedicated team around her, Simmons & Simmons is positioning itself to compete for mandates that might previously have gone elsewhere.
Talent will be the determining factor. Building a practice from a standing start requires attracting associates and counsel with Gulf experience, developing relationships with key clients and referrers, and demonstrating early wins. The firm’s Middle East team already includes Arabic-speaking associates, which helps with the language and cultural requirements of working across the region.
Why financial services tax is the right focus
Simmons & Simmons has long been associated with financial services, and the Middle East is an area where that heritage is increasingly relevant. The region’s financial centres are competing for asset managers, banks and fintech businesses, and regulators have been developing frameworks designed to attract and supervise them.
Each of those developments raises tax questions. Where should a fund be domiciled? How should management fees and carried interest be treated? What are the implications of establishing a substantive presence in the region? How do new global minimum tax rules affect multinational financial groups with Gulf operations? These are exactly the questions on which a specialised financial services tax adviser can add value.
Because financial institutions tend to operate across borders, they also benefit from advisers who can look beyond a single jurisdiction. Shipley’s international experience, combined with the firm’s global network, is designed to meet that need.
Looking ahead
The Gulf’s economic transformation shows no sign of slowing. Governments continue to invest in diversification, infrastructure and capital markets, while global investors are allocating more capital to the region. The tax and regulatory frameworks that underpin that growth will keep evolving, and businesses will continue to look for advisers who can help them stay ahead.
For Simmons & Simmons, the appointment of a senior tax partner in Dubai is both a response to that demand and an investment in the future. The firm has now put in place new offices in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, added senior hires across corporate, energy and infrastructure and disputes, and installed a tax lead with deep experience of the markets that matter most.
Whether the strategy delivers will depend on execution: attracting the right people, winning the right mandates and maintaining the quality of advice. But the direction is clear. Simmons & Simmons wants to be seen not as a firm that happens to have tax capability in the Middle East, but as one that treats the region as a core market with its own dedicated expertise.
For clients navigating a fiscal landscape that is changing faster than at any time in the region’s recent history, that may prove a welcome development.
Simmons & Simmons is an international law firm with offices across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, advising clients in sectors including financial services, asset management and investment funds, technology, life sciences, and energy, natural resources, infrastructure and construction. The firm has been active in the Middle East for around thirty years, with offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, and is known for combining sector knowledge with a global network. Further information is available at simmons-simmons.com.
Hannah Shipley is a partner in Simmons & Simmons’ Dubai office and leads the firm’s Middle East tax practice. She has more than twenty years’ experience in financial services tax, advising financial institutions, asset managers and investment funds across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and internationally.
Abu Dhabi Global Market is an international financial centre located on Al Maryah Island and Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi, with its own regulatory framework and courts based on English common law. It hosts banks, asset managers, funds and financial technology businesses.
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