The first 48 hours
The first 48 hours decide what happens next.
Under Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2021, which came into force on 2 January 2022 and replaced the previous 1995 narcotics law, the UAE operates one of the strictest drug-control regimes in the world. The window in which substantive defence work materially changes the outcome is narrow — typically the first 24 to 72 hours after arrest or detention.
What we do in that window is unglamorous but decisive: attend the police interrogation, prevent damaging admissions, secure bail where the substantive merits permit, file evidence-preservation applications, and — most consequentially for first-time offenders — push for the court to exercise its discretion under Article 45 of the Drugs Law to order a rehabilitation programme in lieu of a custodial sentence.
What we defend
- Drug offences: personal use, possession, dealing, trafficking under Federal Decree-Law 30 of 2021 — including prescription-medication cases (where a UAE-unauthorised substance has been brought into the country), residual-trace cases, and complex multi-defendant trafficking matters.
- White-collar & economic crime: commercial fraud, embezzlement, breach of trust, forgery, false-statement offences, money laundering under Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2018, and counterfeiting.
- Cybercrime: online fraud, financial-platform offences, defamation, content offences and unauthorised data access under the Cybercrime Law.
- Cross-border & international: Interpol red-notice review, extradition defence, and parallel jurisdictional work where the matter spans the UAE and the client's home country.
- Civil-criminal hybrid: private criminal complaints arising from commercial disputes (cheque-bounce, forgery allegations, fraudulent-misrepresentation claims), often linked to civil recovery proceedings.
How we work with overseas instructions
A meaningful share of our criminal-defence work originates from family members, employers, embassies, or counsel outside the UAE — typically the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, India, the Philippines, Russia and the wider GCC. We accept instructions remotely. Engagement letters and powers of attorney are signed via DocuSign-equivalent flows; UAE-side notarisations and consular attestations are handled in-house by our team. We coordinate directly with consular officers and home-country counsel where this materially helps the case.
Status updates are written, in English, on a frequency the family chooses — daily during active proceedings, weekly during waiting periods. Out-of-hours partner cover is included for urgent developments. There is no language barrier; partners and senior associates work fluently in English and Arabic.