Emily Aryeetey

Practice Areas

Emily is a senior employment lawyer and plays a central role in Stephenson Harwood’s highly regarded Middle East employment, pensions and incentives team, which forms an integral part of the firm's global team.

She advises international, regional and local employers across the entire lifecycle of the employment relationship. Drawing upon her vast international experience, she provides tailored advice for each of her clients while applying her knowledge of the local business and cultural environment of the Middle East.

Emily has over 10 years’ experience advising clients, operating in various sectors, on employment-related legal issues ranging from recruitment to termination, including employee monitoring, data protection and privacy in the workplace, as well as the employment aspects of corporate transactions (mergers, acquisitions, outsourcings and IPOs). Emily is also an experienced employment litigator, both in relation to matters under the UAE federal Labour Law and in the Dubai International Financial Centre ("DIFC") courts.

She routinely advises companies with onshore operations in the UAE, in the various commercial free zone areas such as in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai South/Dubai Aviation City Corporation, TwoFour54, and Sharjah Airport Free Zone, and in the financial free zones, DIFC and Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Whilst she is based in our Dubai office, Emily regularly advises on, and manages, multi-jurisdictional employment matters throughout the Middle East and Africa and beyond. For example, in recent years she has advised on matters in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Algeria.

Emily is widely regarded as one of the leading employment practitioners in the Middle East region and is ranked by Chambers Global 2020 as an "Associate to Watch" for UAE employment. As a result of her reputation in the market, she is routinely requested to provide training aimed at HR professionals on UAE employment laws to clients. Furthermore, having advised the DIFC Authority on the re-drafting of the current DIFC Employment Law she also regularly delivers, on behalf of the DIFC Academy, official Continuing Legal Professional Development training to DIFC practitioners on the DIFC Employment Law.

Emily is often listed in and asked to provide views by the press and regularly authors articles in relation to employment and data protection issues.

Prior to her move to the Middle East, Emily worked in Stephenson Harwood’s London office. She continues to advise on contentious and non-contentious UK-related employment and business immigration matters (points-based system, sponsorship, entrepreneur visa, investor visa, representative of overseas business visa), particularly for clients with existing or prospective operations both in the Middle East and in the UK.

Emily qualified in England and Wales in 2010.