Dubai law firms end war-time work-from-home and call staff back to offices amid fragile cease-fire

With Gulf tensions easing after an April cease-fire between the US and Iran, major international law firms operating in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have told employees to resume office attendance from next week. NDTV Profit reports that US-headquartered giants such as Jones Day and Cleary Gottlieb are leading the charge, offering relocation assistance to staff who temporarily decamped abroad during the crisis. The directive marks a symbolic step toward normal-business footing after weeks of shelter-in-place advisories and sporadic drone incidents that emptied corporate towers across the UAE’s financial districts. While attendance is not yet mandatory, partners are “strongly encouraged” to be on the ground to reassure clients, several of whom have insisted on in-person counsel for high-value transactions. Employee responses are mixed. Some expatriate lawyers remain wary, citing the still-delicate security environment and the memory of direct Iranian strikes on Gulf infrastructure in March. Others welcome the return to structured working rhythms, noting that remote hearings and deal negotiations often stretched across incompatible time zones. From a mobility perspective the pivot has immediate implications: corporate housing contracts that were paused or sub-let will need reactivation, school enrolments must be firmed up for families returning in May, and HR teams face a renewed scramble for DIFC parking and office-access passes. Legal recruiters say the episode has triggered fresh conversations about split-site working patterns and emergency-evacuation clauses in employment contracts—topics likely to shape future assignment policies in the region. Businesses across sectors will watch how law firms navigate the transition; if legal services, with their high client-contact quotient, can normalise office life, banks and consultancies are expected to follow suit, accelerating the UAE’s broader post-conflict economic rebound.