October 13, 2026
FGC in the UAE: how it started and what it means
Our work in the UAE grew out of existing relationships.
Our work in the UAE grew out of existing relationships.
Connections built through my years in Jersey’s financial services sector led to conversations about governance, contracts and how to structure businesses in the UAE. Those conversations developed into mandates, creating an opportunity to extend the work we were already doing in Jersey.
FGC Legal Consulting FZ-LLC is now established in Ras Al Khaimah, giving the practice a UAE base alongside our Jersey work.
What the work looks like
The UAE work includes constitutional documents and governance arrangements for family offices, private clients and the businesses they control.
These documents need to reflect the entities involved, the relationships between them and the requirements that apply to the structure. They also need to be useful when decisions have to be made. Who can approve a transaction? Which decisions need wider agreement? What happens if the people involved disagree?
Getting that right takes careful drafting and an understanding of what the arrangements are meant to achieve. Established precedents and experience provide a useful starting point, but the decisions about what to retain, adapt or draft specifically for the client matter.
This is the same principle that underpins the wider FGC practice: legal documents should reflect how the business operates and help the people responsible for it make decisions.
Why Jersey and the UAE work well together
For businesses and families with interests across Jersey and the UAE, the questions are often connected. Ownership arrangements in one part of a structure may have implications for governance and decision-making elsewhere.
The legal and regulatory context needs attention in each case. The requirements depend on the jurisdiction and the particular structure involved.
Our approach starts with understanding the business, the wider structure and what the client needs from its legal arrangements. That background helps us identify where the work connects and where specialist input is needed.
The part I value is being able to build on an existing relationship. When you already understand what someone is trying to achieve, you can have a more useful conversation about the next decision.
What this means for clients
If you are working in the UAE, whether you are building a new structure, running an established business or managing assets across jurisdictions, there are several ways FGC may be able to help.
That might mean putting constitutional documents, shareholders’ agreements and governance arrangements in place. It might mean ongoing legal and governance input through EMBED, with the scope agreed around the business and the relevant jurisdiction. It might also mean a specific piece of drafting through the Legal Document Studio.
The starting point is a conversation about where you are and what you need. If FGC is the right fit, we will explain how we would approach the work. If it is not, we will say so.
How we work across jurisdictions
FGC brings together our Jersey legal practice and our consultancy work in Jersey and the UAE.
Jersey legal advice is provided through FGC Legal Services. Consultancy work is undertaken through FGC Legal Consulting Ltd or FGC Legal Consulting FZ-LLC, depending on the engagement. We agree the scope of the work and the entity responsible for it at the outset.
Where a matter requires advice on local law or specialist input beyond our scope, we work with appropriately qualified advisers. Our role includes helping them understand the wider context and bringing their advice into the work we are doing for the client.
For clients, the benefit is continuity. The understanding developed through one piece of work remains useful as the business grows or a new question arises. There may be different entities and advisers involved, but someone needs to understand how their work fits together. That is an important part of what FGC does.
If you are working in the UAE and would like to talk about where FGC could help, the first step is a short conversation.
Find the right starting point, designed around what the business actually needs.
Traditional offshore firms are excellent at what they're built for, large institutional transactions, multi-jurisdictional structuring, high-value litigation. That model is poorly suited to founders who need to move fast, and to regulated businesses that need embedded expertise, not episodic advice. FGC was built for the gap between them.