Amid sentiment that the region may be getting overcrowded, another US-based firm, Weil Gotshal & Manges, is to open an office in Dubai next year.

The firm was awarded its licence  to practise in the country last week. Its European coordinating partner, Joe Tortorici, is to lead the practice when it opens in January.

"We have worked with some of our major clients in the region for several years," said Tortorici. "Dubai is the leading market for us in the Gulf and it has emerged over the last 10 years as a very important money centre."

The opening is among a handful announced in the last few months, with the economic crisis said to be swaying European and US firms towards the booming economies of the UAE. But recent reports have raised questions as to whether the region's legal market may be getting overcrowded. 

"A few months ago, I would have said the region wasn't over-lawyered,'" said Nick White, Trowers & Hamlins' Dubai managing partner, in the Law Society Gazette. "The pie was growing and there was a piece for everyone. But I have a feeling that some firms may not get the returns they thought they would on the investment they have made in offices and people. I have seen CVs from corporate commercial lawyers who are getting far less work, and far less sexy work, than they were led to believe."

Weil Gotshal most recently expanded in Asia with an office addition in Beijing in June. The Dubai opening has been in the works since mid-year, when the firm announced its intention to expand to the Middle East.