Legal services
Keeping businesses on the right side of UAE regulators, from licensing to anti-money laundering.
We help companies understand and meet their obligations under UAE federal and emirate-level regulation: anti-money laundering, data protection, economic substance, beneficial ownership, consumer protection and sector licences. Practical programmes, not paperwork for its own sake.
Regulation in the UAE has deepened quickly. Anti-money laundering rules under Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018 and its amendments now reach designated non-financial businesses such as real estate brokers, dealers in precious metals and corporate service providers. The Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021), the economic substance regulations, the ultimate beneficial owner rules, corporate tax registration and the Consumer Protection Law each add filings, records and deadlines. Free zones such as the DIFC and ADGM apply their own regimes on top.
Khalifa Al Sada Advocates & Legal Consultants offers the services businesses need when regulatory and compliance questions arise. With in-depth and constantly updated knowledge of local and international regulation, we approach complex compliance matters creatively and effectively, and we express the answer in terms a manager can act on.
We advise:
We map the rules that apply to your activity and tell you what is missing. From there we draft the policies and procedures a regulator expects to see: anti-money laundering and sanctions programmes with customer due diligence and reporting to the goAML platform, data protection policies and privacy notices, whistleblowing and anti-bribery policies, and the record-keeping needed for economic substance and corporate tax. We train staff and the compliance officer so that the policy is applied, not just filed.
When something goes wrong we act fast. We respond to inspection findings, notices and penalty decisions from the Ministry of Economy, the Central Bank, the Securities and Commodities Authority, the Department of Economy and Tourism, the health authorities and the free zone regulators, lodge grievances and appeals within the short deadlines, and negotiate remediation plans. Where a matter becomes a court case, our litigation team represents you.
We work at the point where regulation meets business, and we have advised through several cycles of UAE regulatory change. Our lawyers read the Arabic text of the law and the regulator's circulars directly, so our advice is based on what the rule says, not on a summary. And because we also appear before the courts and the grievance committees, we know how a compliance failure is judged when it matters most.
Our advice is in Arabic and English, and we keep programmes proportionate to the size and risk of the business.
We identify the regulators and the rules that apply to your activity, and the filings and deadlines they carry.
We review your existing policies, records and registrations and report what is compliant, what is missing and what is urgent.
We draft the policies and procedures, register where required and train your team.
We monitor changes in the law, remind you of deadlines and respond to any regulator contact on your behalf.
If it is a financial institution or a designated non-financial business such as a real estate broker, an auditor, a dealer in precious metals or a corporate service provider, yes. Other companies still face sanctions and beneficial ownership obligations.
The federal law applies to most businesses that process personal data, with limited exceptions. DIFC and ADGM have their own laws. Some sectors, such as health, have additional rules.
Penalties are usually fixed by regulation and can be significant. Many can be reduced or reconsidered on a grievance filed within a short period. Contact us as soon as you receive a notice.
We support and train an internal officer rather than replace them, because most regimes require the role to sit inside the company. We can provide ongoing outside counsel.
Insights
19 Feb 2024 6 min read
A practical checklist for UAE businesses: VAT registration thresholds, returns and records, the corporate tax that applies since 2023, free zone treatment and the penalties for getting it wrong.
Read more6 Mar 2023 5 min read
An introduction to the UAE tax system as it was introduced: the Federal Tax Authority, excise tax, value added tax at 5 per cent, the duties of taxable persons and the records they must keep.
Read moreConsultation
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