Agency lawyer in Dubai.

What we do for agencies

An agency is a rights business: it monetises other people's audiences, faces brands on one side and talent on the other, and carries regulatory exposure in both directions. Our agency practice covers the full stack:

• Formation and licensing: choosing mainland or free zone, getting licence activities that actually cover talent representation and content production, and visa structuring for founders, staff and models. Start with our guide to setting up a talent or modelling agency in the UAE.
• Talent representation agreements: exclusivity that is enforceable rather than decorative, commission structures and tails, term and termination mechanics, and what happens to brand relationships when talent leaves.
• Brand and campaign contracts: deliverables and approval flows, usage rights and whitelisting, payment triggers, and the campaign agreement architecture that protects margin when a brand changes scope mid-flight.
• Compliance: the UAE Advertiser Permit regime that replaced the NMC and MRO influencer licences from 1 February 2026, disclosure rules for paid content, and the cross-border questions when campaigns run into other markets.
• Image rights, releases and IP: model releases, content licences versus assignments, and name and likeness protection for the faces on the roster.
• Employment and engagement: employees versus contractors for talent managers, bookers and production staff, and the arrangements for in-house models.
• Disputes: talent walking mid-contract, brands not paying, competitor poaching, and the crisis work when a campaign goes wrong publicly.

The mistake most agencies bring us

Nearly every agency that comes to us with a problem has the same underlying condition: contracts imported from another market. A representation agreement drafted for Los Angeles or London assumes enforcement doctrines, agency law and employment rules the UAE does not share. It reads impressively and fails at the exact moment it is needed, when a top talent walks to a competitor with three brand relationships the agency built. UAE-drafted documents, aligned to how UAE courts and free zone jurisdictions actually treat restraints, commissions and confidentiality, are the difference between a roster and a suggestion.

The compliance layer brands now audit

Since 1 February 2026, the UAE Media Council's Advertiser Permit regime (Chairman Decision No. 3 of 2025 under Federal Decree-Law No. 55 of 2023) applies to advertising content published from the UAE, paid or unpaid. Brands and platforms increasingly audit agency rosters for compliance before signing, which makes permit management a commercial asset rather than an administrative chore. We build permit compliance into roster onboarding, and our permit checker answers the threshold question in seconds.

Who we act for

Talent management agencies building and defending rosters; modelling agencies and their mother-agency arrangements; influencer marketing and social agencies contracting with brands and platforms; creative studios and production houses; and international agencies entering the UAE market. Through May Wong and the China Desk, the practice also runs Chinese-language campaigns and rosters end to end in Mandarin.