Managing Partner, Succession and private client
Eleanor Hale
Eleanor advises families who own businesses and property on DIFC wills, foundations and handing over to the next generation.
About Eleanor
Eleanor qualified as a lawyer in 1996 and moved to Dubai in 1999 to join an international firm’s private client team. In 2009 she founded Hale & Morrow with David Morrow, and she has been managing partner since 2021.
Most of her clients own something that has to outlast them: a family company, a trading business, a portfolio of apartments across the emirates. She is known for getting three generations around one table and keeping the conversation practical, and for writing wills that still work when the business has doubled in size.
- Qualified as a lawyer
- 1996
- Full member of STEP
- TEP
- Succession plans written
- 400+
What Eleanor advises on
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Business succession
Planning who takes over, when, and how the family who don’t work in the business are treated fairly.
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Wills and foundations
DIFC wills that cover company shares and property, and foundations that hold them for the next generation.
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Powers of attorney
Notarised powers of attorney, so the company can keep trading if a director can’t act.
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Estate administration
Estates with company shares, property in several emirates or assets abroad, handled from probate to final accounts.
Eleanor sat at the kitchen table with my father, my sister and me, and got us to a plan all three of us could sign. That’s a skill, not a service.
Recent work
Shared with clients’ permission, or with names left out.
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Three-generation handover of a food manufacturer
A share reorganisation, a family charter, DIFC wills for both parents and a foundation for the two grandchildren, agreed by the whole family in four meetings.
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Family property foundation
An ADGM foundation holding 14 properties, with wills that keep them together while treating each child fairly.
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Estate of a property investor
Administration of an estate including 23 rented apartments, completed in 13 months, with the bank accounts released within six weeks.
Qualifications and outside work
Eleanor is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and sits on the committee of its UAE branch. She speaks regularly to parents’ groups about wills and guardianship.
Outside the office she is a governor of a primary school in Al Barsha and spends winter weekends hiking in the Hajar Mountains.
Insights from the team
All insights-
Renewing a business lease in Dubai: the window most tenants miss
In Dubai, the 90 days before your lease ends matter more than the day it ends. Here is what to do and when.
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Flexible and remote working: getting the arrangements right
There’s no statutory right to ask, but the UAE Labour Law now recognises flexible and remote work. A practical guide for managers.
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Handing over the family business without falling out
Succession is a family conversation before it is a legal one. How to start it, who to include, and what the UAE’s family business law now offers.
Speak to Eleanor
Direct line +971 4 555 0383, or send a message and Eleanor will call you back within one working day.