The Middle East legal job market is slowly picking up, but recruiters say the market is still far from its former glory days.
According to the Mahlab Market Update 2010 Private Practice Report, the Middle East legal markets are still in recovery mode and the Dubai market in particular is only slowly emerging from the slumps. Markets outside the UAE, such as Saudi Arabia, have maintained a good level of activity but this has not yet led to a significant growth in demand for foreign lawyers. The report predicted that international lawyers will not in fact be in demand in the Middle East until 2011.
Managing director at Dolman Recruitment, Ralph Dolman, agrees with this assessment of the Middle East: “It’s not one of the better markets we are working with at the moment. It’s very sporadic,” he says, pointing out that nevertheless the UAE is doing better than other markets in the region. “UAE is the driver; there are more firms there, and greater opportunities.”
Associate director at Taylor Root, Karlie Connellan, agrees that Dubai remains the location with the highest potential demand for foreign lawyers. However, she adds that the market there is not as buoyant as it was. “We are certainly not back to the pre-GFC levels of demand,” she says.
Currently, over 70 Middle East jobs are listed on legaljobscentre.com
|
Country
|
Number of jobs
|
|
Bahrain
|
2
|
|
Egypt
|
2
|
|
Jordan
|
1
|
|
Kuwait
|
4
|
|
Lebanon
|
1
|
|
Oman
|
6
|
|
Qatar
|
7
|
|
UAE
|
41
|
|
Saudi Arabia
|
7
|
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