Dean O’Leary is a Partner and the Head of Construction and Infrastructure at Galadari Legal Advocates & Consultants. Dean has been involved with construction disputes for almost 30 years. He is a member of the IBA and ICC and is also listed in Who’s Who Legal for Construction. He is a registered adjudicator, accredited mediator, DIAC registered arbitrator and a registered advocate with the DIFC Courts.

Whilst his primary area of practice is handling construction and engineering disputes, he also deals with disputes relating to upstream and midstream Oil & Gas and Energy sector matters. Prior to practising law in Dubai Dean practiced as a barrister from chambers in England where he specialized in construction law and prior to that he worked as a quantity surveyor.

Dean came to Dubai in 2006 and since then he has been involved in some of the biggest and most complex construction arbitrations in the region.

His instruction regularly call upon him to represent employers, contractors, subcontractors, consultants and suppliers in mediations, adjudications, expert determinations, arbitrations and the courts.

He has experience of the FIDIC, ICE (now ICC), NEC and JCT forms of contract along with many bespoke forms too. His day-to-day practice sees him working with the FIDIC suite of contracts (main contracts, subcontracts and consultancy forms). He has conducted numerous arbitrations under the auspices of the UNCITRAL, DIAC, ADCCAC, DIFC-LCIA, QICCA, BCDR-AAA and ICC Arbitration Rules as well as numerous ad hoc arbitrations under various lex arbitri. He is fully conversant with the substantive and procedural laws of England, the DIFC and most civil law jurisdictions in the Middle East.

Professional Bodies

• Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow Chartered Institute of Building
• Fellow Dispute Board Federation
• Member Association of Institute for Petroleum Negotiators
• Member Chartered Management Institute

Education

• LLM Construction Law
• MBEng International Construction Law (Distinction)
• MSc Construction Management
• MA Labour Law
• PG Dip Law
• PG Dip Arbitration
• PG Dip International Commercial Arbitration
• PG Dip International Construction Law
• PG Dip International Dispute Resolution (Arbitration)
• PG Dip Oil & Gas Law
• PG Cert Adjudication
• BSC (Hons) Building

Languages

English

Practice focus

• Dispute resolution
• Construction & Infrastructure
• Engineering
• Oil & Gas
• Energy