Team
Andre Saade
Founder & Managing Partner
UAE | UK | Middle East
andre.saade@aslegal.ae
Profile
With over 25 years of experience across the Middle East and GCC, Andre is recognised for his rare ability to bridge civil-law precision with common-law strategy—an expertise that enables him to navigate seamlessly between codified and precedent-based legal systems.
Having started his career in civil-law jurisdictions, Andre later spent more than 15 years with one of the world’s largest global legal practises known for handling sophisticated, high-value matters in the UAE and GCC. His advice that is, technically rigorous, commercially pragmatic, and steepened in jurisdictional experience, making him a trusted advisor to global corporations, HNWIs, and international law firms seeking on-the-ground representation in the UAE’s onshore courts, the DIFC, and the ADGM.
Experience
Andre’s practice covers complex commercial and real-estate litigation, hospitality management disputes, and cross-border enforcement matters. He has represented leading developers, multinational manufacturers, global hospitality groups, and institutional investors in high-value disputes and transactions across the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Egypt, and Lebanon.
Before founding AS Legal, Andre co-managed the onshore dispute practice of an international law firm located in the UAE, where he led on flagship real-estate and hospitality projects and major cross-jurisdictional disputes.
His dual experience in both transactional and litigious real estate allows him to advise clients from project structuring through to enforcement and recovery, ensuring a complete understanding of risk, compliance, and strategy.
Representative Experience
A leading U.S. electric-vehicle manufacturer on disputes before UAE Courts.
A global luxury conglomerate operating in the perfume and cosmetics sector on commercial-agency termination and distribution disputes.
A major multinational technology company on consumer-protection and commercial-distribution matters.
A European industrial group specialising in engineering and energy systems in relation to regional agency and supply disputes.
A global healthcare and life-sciences corporation on litigation and enforcement matters before UAE courts.
An international luxury-hospitality brand on owner-operator management agreements and branding issues in the UAE.
A lifestyle hotel chain under a global hospitality group on operator disputes and project-handover negotiations.
Multiple regional real-estate developers and investment funds on property acquisitions, share transfers, and development disputes.
Areas of Expertise
Commercial & Real-Estate Litigation – Acting before all UAE courts in landlord-tenant, developer, and investment disputes.
Hospitality & Brand Management – Advising hotel operators on management agreements, terminations, and brand-protection strategies.
Commercial Agencies & Distribution Law – Representing principals and agents under the UAE Commercial Agencies Law.
Cross-Border Judgment Enforcement – Handling recognition and enforcement of GCC, UK, and EU judgments before UAE courts.
Real Estate Transactions & Structuring – Advising on asset/share sales, trustee arrangements, and investment structures.
Corporate & Regulatory Advisory – Providing governance, licensing, and compliance advice across onshore and free-zone entities.
Civil and Common Law Bridge
Andre has developed years of experience in working across matters that involve elements of both common law and civil code, and has a specific understanding of how tactics and procedures interplay between the two. Educated and trained in civil-law systems, and having practiced extensively within common-law frameworks such as the DIFC and ADGM, he has a strong reputation for managing parallel proceedings across matters involving timing complexities and conflicts of law.
This dual fluency allows him to:
Lead teams of barristers and onshore advocates on multiple dispute fronts, acting as one consolidated node of contact and update for the client;
Contribute heavily towards early-stage dispute strategy prior to engagement in order to optimise client costs and outcomes;
Operate with a deep knowledge of ‘without privilege’ communications, and their limits, across different jurisdictions.
Languages
Arabic
English
French
Co-Founder & Principal, Emerging Technologies
UAE | UK | International
ali.khan@aslegal.ae
Profile
Ali Khan is a solicitor of the senior courts of England and Wales, with more than a decade of experience in frontier legal matters, both contentious and non-contentious. Upon being Called to the Bar of England and Wales, and having studied Arabic as an undergraduate, he started work with Andre at the same international law firm, acting as a bridge between onshore Civil Code and offshore Common Law contentious matters.
After a stint in entrepreneurial endeavours, including co-founding one of the region’s earliest and largest alternative Arab music festivals and an asset management firm in the UK, A li developed a keen interest turned specialisation in web3. Upon co-founding the firm, Ali represented client interests at the working groups for the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai, one of the first web3 orientated regulatory bodies in the world.
Ali's practice focuses on a broad range of emerging technology clients and matters, both contentious and non-contentious, involving complex multi-jurisdictional financial services compliance, and technology-enabled transactions across the UAE's onshore and offshore regimes—including ADGM, DIFC, and VARA-regulated environments. His work spans stablecoin platforms, cryptocurrency lending arrangements, and digital asset regulatory frameworks, positioning him as a trusted advisor to fintech innovators, blockchain enterprises, and institutional investors navigating the evolving regulatory landscape of digital finance.
With deep knowledge of both civil-law and common-law systems, Ali delivers commercially pragmatic counsel that bridges regulatory complexity with business objectives, enabling clients to structure compliant, market-leading solutions in the UAE and beyond.
Experience
In founding the emerging technologies practise, Ali executed a thesis (developed through extensive client-side experience) that ecosystem participants could only truly benefit from ecosystemic advice, rather than siloed thinking. He developed the practise on a ‘fractional in-house counsel’ model, straddling legal and strategic advice that only web3 native thinkers could cogently provide, and servicing exchanges, OTC desks, RWA tokenisation projects, stablecoin issuance projects, BTC mining projects, market makers, and a number of other corollary verticals.
As a result, the firm developed early expertise on both macro and local legal developments and assisted clients in adapting accordingly. Along with network partners, the firm provides a ‘turn-key’ solution for projects from inception, to strategy, to formation, to drafting policies and template contracts, to licensing, to disputes.
His AI practise focuses on providing advice on novel and realistic investments models pertinent to the technology, as well as defining perimetric strategy on ontological frameworking, intellectual property, trade secrets and data management (with DePin straddling both sides of the practise).
The Emerging Technologies practise has also recently been engaged for capacity building exercises in the life sciences and biotech sectors involving Abu Dhabi and the ‘Golden Triangle’ in the UK.
As a native ‘code-switcher’, his dual capacity to ‘think law and technology’, enables him to advise clients holistically across multiple jurisdictions. He is the founding co-chair of the web3 Special Interest Group (SIG) at the Institute of Directors in the UK, and a member of the Middle East Stablecoin Association (MESA).
Ali was a legal innovation fellow at the Charter Cities Institute, and is a founding director of Senebria Corporate Governance, which assists emerging technologies clients in forming both traditional and innovative governance structures amongst centralised, decentralised and hybrid organisational models. He regularly speaks on panels internationally on international legal developments in the emerging technologies sector.
Representative Experience
Project launches: advising 10+ clients on successful token launches in both bull and bear markets.
Corporate Structuring: advising renowned international web3 corporate market participants in setting up and maintaining a presence in the UAE a part of global strategy.
Legal architecture: advising early market participants in designing structures to allow for compliant decentralised operations whilst abiding my evolving regulatory frameworks.
Estate Planning: advising founders on personal strategies for complex asset management post exit, in collaboration with network wealth management partners.
Stablecoin design: developing legal and trust structures for complex yield-bearing real estate and DePin tokenisation projects.
Decentralised Governance: Advising on and developing realistic and effective governance frameworks for DAOs, and centralised but remote organisations.
Licensing: assisted in acquiring licenses and permissions from VARA, DFSA, FSRA, SCA, CBUAE, FCA (UK), ESMA (EU), and other regulatory bodies internationally.
Disputes: representing clients on complex cross-jurisdictional fraud cases involving well known exchanges and ‘crash’ sites, complex asset debt recovery, ‘Layer 1’ grant issuance, employment and token vesting disputes, mediation.
Areas of Expertise
Virtual Assets & Blockchain Regulation – Advising on VARA, ADGM, DIFC, SCA and CBUAE compliance, VASP licensing, stablecoin frameworks, and cryptocurrency regulatory structures across UAE and international jurisdictions.
Financial Services Compliance – Structuring cross-border financial services arrangements, investor introduction agreements, and regulatory compliance frameworks across multiple legal systems.
Emerging Technology ‘Code-Switching’ – Providing counsel on blockchain applications, digital asset platforms, DeFi structures, and technology-enabled financial services from both operator and legal perspective.
Corporate Law, Governance & Compliance – Drafting board resolutions, shareholder agreements, employment policies, complex SAFEs / SAFTs / Token Warrants and Shareholder Agreements, and comprehensive compliance frameworks for technology and financial services companies.
Complex Disputes – regularly representing clients (usually in emerging technology matters) with a nexus in the UAE on complex cross-border disputes involving arbitration, enforcement and parallel proceedings.
Civil and Common Law Bridge
Ali’s defining strength lies in his ability to translate between legal traditions. Educated and trained in common-law systems, and having practiced extensively within civil-law frameworks, he brings a hybrid legal mindset to every engagement.
This dual fluency allows him to:
Strategically coordinate multi-forum and form non-contentious matters with a ‘litigation risk orientated’ perspective across civil and common-law jurisdictions;
Align approaches with international counsel to ensure consistency of legal theory and evidence;
Deliver outcomes that respect local legislation while satisfying international commercial standards.
Languages
English
Urdu
Arabic
French