Corporate legal support in the UAE

Why a UAE company needs corporate legal support

Once registered, a UAE company generates a steady stream of legal work: licence and visa renewals, changes of shareholders and managers, contracts with customers and suppliers, bank requests and tax deadlines. If the founder lives in Moscow, Almaty or elsewhere in Europe, keeping on top of it all is hard, and a missed deadline usually costs more than prevention. Corporate legal support in the UAE solves this: you have a lawyer who knows your company and takes responsibility for keeping its paperwork in order.

What the retainer covers

• Contracts. Drafting and reviewing agreements with customers, suppliers, distributors and contractors; governing law and dispute resolution — see contracts and cross-border deals.
• Corporate resolutions. Shareholder and board resolutions, appointing or replacing a manager, powers of attorney.
• MoA and licence amendments. Shareholders joining or leaving, share transfers, changes of activity, address or name.
• Registers. Keeping the shareholder and beneficial owner (UBO) registers and filing changes with the registrar on time.
• Deadline tracking. A calendar for licence, lease, visa, Emirates ID, tax registration and return dates, with advance reminders.
• Banking. Responding to KYC requests and keeping your bank file current — see bank compliance.
• Day-to-day advice in Russian, English and Arabic.

How we work

1. Enquiry. We reply within 30 minutes during working hours via WhatsApp, Telegram or email.
2. Diagnosis (1–2 days). We review the company's documents, list the risks, build a compliance calendar and quote a fee.
3. Contract and power of attorney (1–3 days). Can be signed remotely.
4. Ongoing work. You send tasks by messenger or email; each gets a deadline and an owner. You receive a report every week.
5. Annual review of scope and fee.

If you have inherited a company with a history, or it has run without a lawyer for a while, we start with a legal audit to clear the backlog.

Deadlines most often missed

• Trade licence and office lease renewals.
• Corporate Tax registration and the annual return, due within 9 months of the end of the tax period.
• Mandatory VAT registration once turnover passes the threshold.
• Updating the beneficial owner register after a change of shareholders.
• Staff and founder visa renewals.

The full list of obligations is on our after company registration page; tax specifics are under tax and compliance.

Who corporate support suits

• Founders living outside the UAE. The company is registered in Dubai while the owner runs the business from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or the EU and cannot deal with the authorities in person.
• Growing companies. New staff, counterparties and banks bring contracts, visas and checks that cannot wait.
• Companies with several shareholders. It pays to set out decision-making, shareholder exit and profit distribution in the MoA and resolutions early, before a disagreement turns into a shareholder dispute.
• Groups of companies across free zones and the mainland, where several licences need their deadlines and documents kept in step.

If you have only a few tasks, you can start with one-off consultations and move to a retainer as the workload grows.

Cost of corporate legal support

The retainer starts from AED 3,500 per month. The fee depends on the number of companies and shareholders, the volume of contract work and the number of visas. Larger one-off matters — share deals, restructuring, disputes — are quoted separately at a fixed price (from AED 5,000) or on a success-fee basis. Government fees and translations are paid separately and listed in the estimate.