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Portrait of Courtney Rothery

Courtney Rothery

Legal Director

CMS (UAE) LLP
Level 15 Burj Daman
Dubai International Financial Centre
Burj Daman
PO Box 506873
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Languages English

Courtney is a Legal Director in the Infrastructure, Construction & Energy (ICE) disputes team based in Dubai. She has worked in Dubai since 2008 specialising in dispute resolution and international arbitration in the UAE and GCC for over 14 years. 
Courtney has broad experience of acting on a range of UAE disputes particularly construction industry claims for time and money, variations and price escalation, defective work, incomplete design and wrongful termination on major construction and infrastructure projects.

Her experience includes representing employers, consultants, main contractors and subcontractors as claimants and respondents in a number of arbitrations. 

Courtney also supports clients during the day to day execution of the works, to help resolve complex and commercially sensitive issues and to assist with the preparation of project correspondence to ensure that clients are best placed to pursue or defend claims later on.

As a disputes specialist, Courtney regularly advises on general commercial disputes and the enforcement prospects of court judgments and arbitral awards in various GCC jurisdictions.

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Relevant experience

  • A regional contractor in an ICC arbitration related to the construction of an Energy Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The case involved issues relating to breach of contract, ownership of the proprietary design for the works, delays and disruption, defects, repudiation and termination.
  • A state-owned entity who was the Respondent in an ICC arbitration commenced by a UAE Government. The arbitration concerned an Oil and Gas exploration and production sharing contract and involved issues relating to breach of contract, misrepresentation and termination.
  • An international subcontractor who was the Claimant in a DIAC arbitration concerning a major subcontract for works at a UAE International Airport. The Respondent was a large regional contractor. The arbitration involved a complex claim for an extension of time and associated prolongation costs and variations.
  • A specialist international subcontractor on a major subcontract for works at Abu Dhabi International Airport – Midfield Terminal Building.  
  • A listed Asian construction and engineering company on its contract to build the UAE’s national railway network.
  • Two members of an international consortium building a key infrastructure project in Dubai on its claims against the government owned employer, its consortium partner, and its subcontractors.
  • An Indian multinational conglomerate company on various projects including claims presented by the Employer relating to defective work on a Petrochemical plant in Yanbu Saudi Arabia and claims against an oil & gas exploration & production company in respect of a contract for construction work on an gas field project in Oman.  
  • An insurance company on various construction claims relating to the ongoing development of the UAE’s largest oil field, which is also the fourth largest offshore oil field in the world.  
  • An international developer on a contract to demolish, redesign and build a partially constructed commercial and residential project in one of the region’s leading tech hub districts in Dubai.
  • A local contractor in respect of its claims against a government entity relating to the construction of a high-profile recreational facility in Dubai.  The claims arose from a technical dispute and involved issues concerning; defective design and specifications, defective workmanship and claims for variations, an extension of time and prolongation costs.
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Education

2005 - LLB Hons, Northumbria University, Northumbria.

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Feed

11/08/2023
In­ter­na­tion­al arbitration law and rules in United Arab Emirates
Arbitration is becoming an increasingly popular method of dispute resolution in the UAE, particularly amongst the in­ter­na­tion­al community. The UAE's Arbitration Law has provided a much-needed update to...
05/05/2023
Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration – Revised Arbitration Rules
In­tro­duc­tionThe Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration (‘SCCA’) announced the publication of the revised SCCA Arbitration Rules (‘New Rules’) on 1 May 2023.  The Chairman of the SCCA Board of...
06/01/2023
A new year, a new UAE Civil Procedure Law
On 2 January 2023 the UAE’s new Civil Procedure Law Federal Law 42 of 2022 came into effect (the “New Civil Procedure Law”). It applies to all legal proceedings before the onshore UAE courts that...
30/09/2022
A key development in the reciprocity of enforcement between the English...
On 13 September 2022, the In­ter­na­tion­al Co-operation Department of the Ministry of Justice of the United Arab Emirates (the “UAE Ministry of Justice”) issued a guidance letter to the Director General...
03/03/2022
The DIAC Rules 2022
Introduction Following the con­sol­id­a­tion of the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Arbitration Centre (“DIAC”) as the sole arbitration centre in Dubai (as reported here), a new set of arbitral rules was published...
23/09/2021
DIAC takes it all: the integration of Dubai’s arbitration institutions
Introduction On 14 September 2021 Decree No. 34 of 2021 (the “De­cree”) was issued in Dubai in respect of the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Arbitration Centre (“DI­AC”); coming into force on 20 September...
15/04/2021
Law and regulation of con­sequen­tial damages clauses in the energy sector...
1. Do the words “con­sequen­tial loss” have a given meaning in law? The term is not defined under UAE law and is not treated consistently as a legal concept. In this regard, UAE law dis­tin­guishes...
15/03/2021
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: The recent Supreme Court Decision on contracts...
The General Assembly of the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia, the highest appeal court in the Kingdom, recently published a decision (No. M/45/M dated 08/05/1442AH) setting out judicial principles to be...
30/03/2020
Arbitration in the UAE: curbs on the awarding of legal costs
Introduction As detailed in our previous Law Now (available here) the UAE’s new arbitration law (Federal Law No. 6 of 2018) (the “Ar­bit­ra­tion Law”) was implemented in June 2018 and brought a degree...