Samer Abdo

Samer has extensive experience in the area of Litigation, Banking & Finance and Corporate Advisory particularly in the realm of family offices set up and operation.

Prior to his role at Abdo Rafiq & Partners, Samer was a partner and head of Litigation at another leading UAE law firm, and before this, he worked as senior in-house legal counsel at Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC. Samer has a superb understanding of legal matters from both in-house and external counsel perspective through his role in managing and leading the implementation of various legal projects at Dubai Islamic Bank. Prior to his role at Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, Samer also led the Legal Department of Dubai Bank as Manager Legal Department. Before moving to private practice as a Litigator, Samer also worked in prominent government departments.

Samer’s experience & skills from working in government sectors and the private sector through large international organisations bring a breadth of diverse legal experience. Samer regularly advises a number of publicly listed clients on various matters from litigation perspective on civil, commercial, labour, corporate, property and related transactions.

Samer also has vast corporate advisory experience where he has advised on the set up of numerous family offices covering wealth structuring, asset management, tax, trusts and estate matters. His clients include well known high net worth individuals, family offices and entrepreneurs based in the UAE, wider GCC and around the world. Samer’s experience is exceptionally broad and enables him to provide a commercial and strategic perspective when advising clients on their family office planning. He has advised a wide variety of prominent families and business leaders in meeting their objectives for the set up and operation of bespoke family offices.

Samer’s current practice involves advising and representing various clients on a multitude of complex litigation and arbitration matters across the UAE.