Melissa Murray

Practice Areas

Intellectual Property

Franchising

Commercial

Career

Melissa is the head of the Intellectual Property Group for the Middle East offices at Bird & Bird and a partner in the International Commercial Group. She has practised in the UAE since 2006 and is ranked in Legal 500 and other directories for her commercial and intellectual property experience.

She advises clients on intellectual property, commercial, corporate and general litigation matters relating to their operations in the UAE and the wider Middle East region. This covers matters such as IT, IP, trademark protection, franchising, and commercial licensing of intellectual property, media, healthcare, consumer protection and regulatory issues. She particularly specialises in franchising, distribution and supply agreements having acted for some of the world largest brands when licensing their intellectual property in the Middle East.

Professional Memberships

Melissa's professional memberships include INTA, the American Bar Association as well as a number of UAE, UK, USA, and Australian business associations. She is also a member the Franchising Committee of the International Bar Association. She regularly writes chapters for legal text books such as the Franchise Law Review, the Life Sciences Reviews, the Franchise Law Journal, the IBA's newsletters and Middle East journals and is regularly invited to speak at events throughout the GCC.