Eversheds’ Middle East chairman Christopher Jobson has joined Clyde & Co as a partner in the firm’s Abu Dhabi office.
Jobson left Eversheds on 30 June and the firm has no plans to install a new chairman in the region. He will start work at Clydes on 1 September.
Jobson has been practicing litigation and arbitration in the Middle East for 10 years, based out of Abu Dhabi and Doha. His clients include regional and international energy companies, financial institutions, protection and indemnity clubs, ship owners and charterers and logistics organisations.
His arrival at Clyde & Co’s Abu Dhabi office takes the number of partners to six, out of 13 for dispute resolution in the region and 40 in total.
Eversheds Middle East managing partner Nasser Ali Khasawneh said: “We had been discussing a possible return to the UK for Chris, and other opportunities in the region, but he has decided that the time is right for him to take on a new challenge.”
Jobson is returning to Clyde & Co having spent the early part of his career working in the firm’s Dubai and Hong Kong offices.
He said he was looking forward to working with the team at Clydes and saw it as a “platform from which to build”.
Clyde & Co Middle East head of dispute resolution and MENA board member Chris Mills said the dispute resolution practice was key to the firm’s strategy in the region.
Eversheds has been moving towards installing local lawyers as regional heads in its international offices in recent years.
Ali Khasawneh was deputy managing partner in the region until 2012 when he replaced Jobson as managing partner, and the latter became the firm’s Middle East chairman (8 October 2012).
The firm also appointed corporate projects partner Dani Kabbani as managing partner of its Qatar office earlier this year.