When a legal audit makes sense
A legal audit of a UAE company checks whether your documents and day-to-day practice meet legal and regulatory requirements. Owners who run their UAE business from Moscow, Almaty or Europe often only discover issues when a bank freezes the account or a penalty arrives.
Common triggers:
- the company was set up years ago and the people who kept the records have moved on;
- the bank has asked for an updated KYC pack or is querying transactions;
- an investor is coming in, a stake is being sold or funding raised;
- ownership or management is changing;
- you need comfort that the newer tax obligations are being met.
What we review
Corporate records
Licence and permitted activities, MoA/AoA, register of shareholders and managers, resolutions, powers of attorney, and whether the actual business matches the licence. We also check ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) records are filed and current.
Contracts
Key agreements with customers, suppliers and distributors: risk allocation, terms, dispute clauses, automatic renewals. We can rework them under our contracts & cross-border deals service.
Staff and visas
Employment contracts, staff visas and quotas, end-of-service gratuity calculations and employment-dispute exposure.
Tax and filings
Corporate Tax and VAT registration, return deadlines and related-party pricing questions — together with your accountant. See tax & corporate compliance.
Premises, licences and permits
Office or flexi-desk lease, licence renewal dates, and special approvals for regulated activities.
Disputes and claims
Open court and arbitration cases, unresolved claims, and receivables that can still be recovered.
What you receive
A written report in English or Russian (or both, if it is going to a bank or investor):
- the risks we found, rated high, medium or low;
- what needs fixing, in what order and how long that usually takes;
- which documents to prepare or update;
- points to resolve with your accountant or auditor.
We can then carry out the fixes or move you onto corporate legal support on retainer so the issues do not build up again.
How the audit runs
- Your request — we reply within 30 minutes during business hours.
- Diagnosis, 1–2 days: we agree the scope, the document list and a fixed fee.
- Engagement letter and power of attorney, 1–3 days, can be done remotely.
- Document review, registry requests to the free zone or mainland authority where needed, and an interview with the manager.
- Report and a call to walk through the risks.
Timing depends on the size of the company, the number of contracts and how quickly documents are provided.
Auditing your own company vs vetting someone else's
A legal audit looks at your own company. If you are buying a business or a stake, joining a project or vetting a new partner, you need due diligence instead: it looks at risk from the buyer's or investor's side and relies on public sources and information disclosed by the seller.
Fees
The audit is a fixed-price project from AED 5,000. The final figure depends on the number of entities, contracts and employees. Government charges for extracts and translation costs are billed separately and listed in the estimate.
FAQ
A financial audit tests the accounts and numbers; a legal audit tests documents, contracts, licences and regulatory compliance. They complement each other, and we work alongside your accountant or auditor.
No. Documents are shared electronically, interviews happen by video and we deal with authorities under a power of attorney.
For a small single-entity company, usually a few weeks. We confirm the timing after the diagnosis, once we see the volume of documents.
Yes, if you want us to — either as a separate project or as part of a retainer.