Luke Tapp

Practice Areas

Employment, Labour, Shares and Reward

Career

Luke is a Partner for Pinsent Masons and leads the firm’s Middle East Employment practice. Luke is also part of the firm’s Global Board and is the Operations Partner for the Middle East Region.

Luke is a UK qualified employment lawyer and has been practicing in Dubai and the Middle East since 2012. Luke is ranked as a Chambers Band 1 practitioner.

Luke manages and leads the Pinsent Masons UAE and Middle East employment practice and the practice is now one of the region’s leading teams, both in terms of its profile, client relationships and reputation amongst peers and clients. Luke assists clients with all aspects of labour law in the Middle East and in particular, employment laws within the DIFC, ADGM and UAE.

Luke regularly advises clients on the full range of employment and HR matters within the Middle East and in particular, regularly advises on the following:

- assisting with the transfer and secondment of employees from international jurisdictions into the Middle East or within Middle East businesses;

- reviewing the full suite of employment documentation, including contracts of employment, policies and handbooks, and advising on the placement of employees and consultants into all of the jurisdictions within the Middle East;

- team hires and team moves within and across sectors to enable clients to grow their business, recruit the strongest talent within the region and of course protect their workforce;

- all aspects of restructuring, with a particular focus on senior executive exit strategies;

- supporting and representing clients on internal HR investigations and complex employment litigation, including onshore labour claims, DIFC and ADGM employment disputes, multi-jurisdiction disputes and disputes on a wide variety of statutory and contractual matters.

Luke is a founding member of the Evolve People Network, a new and leading UAE and GCC network group for professionals in the HR/People industry. Luke and the team deliver presentations to several high-profile clients, including the DMCC, Mecomed, the Association of Corporate Counsel (MENA) and other networking groups. Luke regularly features in the Dubai press and radio for his views on the employment market and new developing employment law issues.

Professional Memberships

• DIFC Courts Practitioner

• Solicitor, qualified in England and Wales

• Member, Law Society of England

Work Highlights

• Assisting our Tier 1 infrastructure client on a high value investigation, criminal complaint and employment dismissal and dispute.

• Advised one of the leading global design & consultancy organisations on a large-scale team move from their business to a competitor, together with alleged fraud and embezzlement by one of its former senior managers including employment claims and criminal action.

• Assisting one of the leading global building materials companies on a detailed investigation into allegations of corruption and financial manipulations in relation to their UAE entity.

• Advising a global life sciences business on its global handbook and policies. Working together with our global employment team in preparing, finalising, and preparing for implementation a global handbook that applied to 20+ jurisdictions worldwide and covered a range of employment related policies, which were tailored and relevant to the life sciences sector, such as policies around local regulatory considerations, intellectual property and protection of confidential information.

• Advising a major life sciences business on its key regional policies that are relevant to its Middle East workforce. Recent key matters we have assisted the client on include advising on the legal framework and practical risks in relation to employing staff with disabilities across give Middle East jurisdictions and hosting and presenting at a one-day workshop with the client on nationalisation obligations and policies in relation to its local workforce.

• Advised NMC Healthcare on employee issues, including remedial steps, around UAE/GCC National pensions, ongoing employee litigation cases, end of service gratuity issues and changes to key management terms.

• Advising Siemens Healthineers in relation to several UAE employment law issues, including a complex matter relating to a senior individual’s relocation to the UAE and planned high value future retirement arrangements.

• Acting for an online healthcare company, regarding a claim from a former employee in the ADGM courts. This claim relates to alleged entitlements to shares in the business under an employee option scheme. We are assisting the client with defending these claims and all related issues.

• Acting for the company to successfully defend all employment law claims filed by a former senior employee in the DIFC Court. Advised the company throughout the various stages of the DIFC Court proceedings up to the final Judgment where the court dismissed all of the employee’s claims which included: harassment and sex discrimination; breach of contract; defamation; penalty pay. This was a significant case for our client not least given the seriousness of the allegations and claims filed. We were successful in defending all of the employee’s claims in the first instance and are currently assisting the client with the appeals process.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, Iraq, Oman, Egypt, UK

Industry Sector Expertise

• Life Sciences

• Healthcare

• Insurance

• Infrastructure

• Retail

• Energy

• Technology

• Freezone entities (DIFC, DMCC, ADGM)

Education