Corporate & Commercial Law
Shareholder arrangements, commercial agreements and governance documents, drawn and reviewed as instruments that have to hold.
Service 15
Company Formation & Corporate Structuring
Choosing the right vehicle and jurisdiction, incorporating it, and setting the shareholder arrangements that decide how disputes end.
The structure a business is set up in decides more than people expect: who may own it, what it may invoice for, where a dispute is heard, and what happens when a shareholder wants out.
The work is usually cheapest at the start and most expensive to undo later. We advise on the choice of jurisdiction and vehicle before anything is filed, and on the documents that govern the relationship between the people who own it.
What we do
Jurisdiction and vehicle
Mainland, free zone or offshore, and the trade-offs each carries for ownership, activity and where a dispute is heard.
Incorporation
Name reservation, initial approvals, licensing and the filings each authority requires, with the official fees stated separately from ours.
Constitutional documents
Memorandum and articles drafted for the way the business will actually be run rather than adopted as a template.
Shareholder arrangements
Shareholder and joint venture agreements covering deadlock, exit, transfer restrictions and what happens on a falling out.
Restructuring
Adding or removing shareholders, changing activity or legal form, and moving an entity between jurisdictions.
Branches and representative offices
Establishing a presence for a foreign parent, and the limits on what each form may do.
Questions we are asked
Mainland or free zone?
It depends on who the customers are and what the activity is. A free zone entity suits a business trading outside the UAE or within its own zone; onshore work for UAE customers usually points to the mainland. The right answer is set by the activity, not by the headline cost of the licence.
Can a foreign investor own the company outright?
For most activities, yes. Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 on Commercial Companies removed the general local ownership requirement for a wide range of mainland activities, though certain strategic activities remain subject to conditions. The activity has to be checked rather than assumed.
Do we need a shareholder agreement if there are only two of us?
That is the case where it matters most. Two shareholders with equal holdings and no agreed way to break a deadlock is the single most common structural problem we are asked to fix after it has already gone wrong.
How long does incorporation take?
It varies by authority and by activity, and the delay is almost always in approvals and documents rather than the filing itself. We set out what is needed at the start so the timetable is not lost waiting for one attestation.
General information about this service, not advice on your matter. Legislation is named for orientation. See our terms of use.