The Middle East region was a hive of legal recruitment activity prior to the financial crisis of late 2008 and supposedly immune to the effects of any downturn.

However, the liberalisation of these markets, particularly in Dubai, in many ways contributed to them being confronted with many of the issues and problems seen in other international markets. Most law firms and in-house organisations (both local and multinational) have gone through restructuring to some degree, and the region has since become a lot more realistic in its ambitions.

A year on and a sense of normality seems to have returned. The fundamentals that made the region an exciting prospect in the first place, vast oil wealth and financial reserves, seem to be re-emerging as the main reason that companies (and law firms) wish to continue to grow their business in the Middle East. While growth will be more restrained, there is no doubt that there is much potential for business opportunity with mergers and acquisitions in the pipeline, a gradual thawing in the finance markets and renewed construction activity.

Smaller legal markets such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have started the upturn quicker than Dubai, where more resource is already in place, but firms and in-house legal operations are starting to look towards 2010 with a more positive view and selective hiring is already taking place.