Shiraz Sethi

Practice Areas

Employment and Labor, Advice and Counselings, Employment Disputes

Career

Shiraz Sethi is the regional head of employment based in Dentons’ Dubai office. He joined Dentons in 2020 and has more than 14 years of experience working on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. He has worked with multinational clients in a variety of sectors, including technology, media and telecommunications, professional services, financial services, insurance and energy. Shiraz provides advice on all aspects of employment law, including recruitment, termination, terms and conditions of employment (benefits, bonuses and remuneration), restrictive covenants, team moves and terminations, and is a specialist in complex workplace investigations. Shiraz’s practice also covers matters involving fraud, bribery and corruption as well as employee misconduct claims.

Shiraz assists on jurisdictional projects (including covering restructures, sales of a business as a going concern and employee status issues) as well as issues arising out of employee mobilisation and international assignments. He regularly presents at seminars and workshops as part of Dentons’ regular client training programme and at external events organised by various business councils, HR consultancy firms and other freezone authorities, including DIFC, DMCC and JAFZA.

He is acknowledged as a leading individual for employment law and is ranked in the UAE by both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500. His robust experience and achievement in the industry has also led him to win the Young Lawyer of the Year Award and Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year. More recently, he was recognised by Lexis Nexis Middle East as a leader in HR and Employment and was subsequently appointed to the Board of the Lexis Nexis HR Middle East Journal. He is also regularly quoted in publications such as The National, Gulf News and Arabian Business and has regularly appeared on Dubai Eye Radio as well as making several television appearances with Asharq Business News, Dubai One and CNBC.

Shiraz has been involved in shaping the legislative landscape for the UAE. He was retained by the Chief Justice of the DIFC Courts to draft the first commentary on the DIFC Employment Law. He was subsequently mandated on an exclusive basis by the Chief Legal Officer of the DIFC Authority to draft the new DIFC Employment Law. Shiraz was also invited to participate in an exclusive committee to draft the DIFC Presidential Directive during COVID-19. In addition, Shiraz and his team were asked to draft similar COVID-19 provisions for the DMCC. Shiraz has also recently been retained by another GCC jurisdiction to assist with the legislative drafting and reform of their existing labour laws. More recently, he was asked to review the employment ecosystem for JAFZA which included a review of its entire suite of employment contracts, policies and procedures and was supplemented with training to key stakeholders within the senior leadership team.

Shiraz is consistently recognised as a leading lawyer in his field. Some of his clients say: “Having worked with all of the top law firms and lawyers, Shiraz ranks far above his peers, and is clearly a leader in his field”, “Shiraz is an outstanding lawyer. He has encyclopaedic knowledge, coupled with a reasoned, practical approach. Overall simply the best in class”, “I believe he is the best employment lawyer in the market.”

Professional Memberships

Solicitor, Senior Courts of England and Wales, 2008

Employment and Labour, American Bar Association (ABA)

International Bar Association (IBA)

Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)

Experience

JAFZA: Advising on the exclusive review and revision of JAFZA’s entire employment eco-system including all template employment contracts, JAFZA Rules, policies and procedures relating to employment and providing advise relating to new working arrangements and the different types of visas introduced into the UAE. This deal was the first time the market had seen such large-scale changes to the UAE Labour Law and the first time JAFZA has engaged external counsel to assist with completely overhauling existing infrastructures.

DIFC Authority: Advising on the drafting of the legislative changes to the DIFC Employment Law.

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC): Advising, on an exclusive basis, on the drafting of the COVID-19 regulations for the DMCC.

Confidential: Advising in connection with fraud and embezzlement of company funds by employees, taking criminal action against them and working alongside Grant Thornton on the investigatory report to issue termination notices.

Exchange House: Advising on multiple cases of fraudulent activities carried out by two senior employees, preparing all relevant documentation and letters relating to their suspension and retained by a DIFC category 4 licensed entity to draft the grounds for appeal and the skeleton argument for the hearing.

Quantuma Advisory Limited: Advising on setting up the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Scheme platform.

Confidential financial regulatory company: Advising two senior partners within a financial regulatory company with regards to the enforceability of their restrictive covenants and subsequently putting together a strategy to execute their move to a competitor firm.

Defence contract: Advising on and drafting an employment agreement, a secondment agreement and a tripartite agreement for a defence contract to effect the secondment of an employee from the UAE to KSA.

Global consultancy business: Advising on a team exit engaging in pre-litigation correspondence and attending a mediation hearing to resolve the dispute.

Swiss private bank: Advising in relation to a DFSA regulatory notice and advising the client on settlement.

Major Japanese bank: Advising in relation to the transfer of Russian employees to the United Arab Emirates.

Nike: Advising in the GCC region on a review of its diversity and inclusion policy and localising the contents to align with the local employment legislation in each jurisdiction.

Languages Spoken

Hindi, Urdu, English

Education