Ex-Clyde and Co Partner launches new law platform for construction disputes for the Middle East.
ABU DHABI – New legal services firm MANTLE LAW launches in Abu Dhabi this week, founded by one of the leading figures in construction and infrastructure disputes. Mat Heywood, formerly a partner within Clyde and Co’s Band 1 disputes practice, has created a brand new enterprise that seeks to deliver a top-quality, conflict-free service with the ability to offer innovative delivery and pricing as standard.
The practice focuses on dispute resolution – primarily arbitration, but with extensive experience in litigation, expert determination, adjudication and ADR – for the construction and infrastructure sectors. Heywood’s experience covers an impressive array of landmark projects, from airports, ports and power generation to pipelines, roads, hospitals and commercial premises.
The Middle Eastern construction disputes market is one of the largest in the world, with over $2.5tn worth of construction projects planned to complete by 2030. It is also highly competed, and many global law firms have spent decades building a significant presence. However, quality of service in Big Law is an enduring challenge, as are the restrictions of high cost-bases, conservative cultures and inevitable conflicts.
Mantle Law offers a refreshingly different model, based on a combination of expert advice, progressive technology and an uncharacteristically agile infrastructure that eschews the rigid models employed by his more traditional peers.
Heywood comments: “In a market crowded with faceless institutions, it is our mission to create a truly distinctive and remarkable business, aligned to the times we live in and ready for a future we all face together; one that is proudly moving away from many of the outdated operational and cultural binds of traditional law. Most of all, we want to build a business that can deliver the most fleet-of-foot, optimised and effective legal support to our clients, who are increasingly under pressure to deliver more with less.”
The firm will concentrate on offering core legal services to the leading contractors, employers and construction/engineering professionals in the market, with a singular focus on arbitration and disputes. This single-minded approach guarantees time, effort and resources are channelled towards delivering an unmatched service in these areas, exactly what clients need when they’re involved in a challenging and costly dispute or trying to avoid one. That same progressive thinking is being applied to the management of the firm. Supporting the practice at an operational level is James Hacking and his team at Kindleworth, a specialist managed services provider which focuses exclusively on launching and managing top-tier law firms.
Above all, Heywood’s vision for the firm centres on a bold concept; that all law firms should be 100% designed around the needs of its clients, not the fundamental pillars of traditional legal practice. It’s a refreshing stance, and one that is far more in-tune with the needs of organisations that are desperate for fresh thinking as they battle against some of the most challenging economic headwinds in decades.
Heywood continues: “The new client agenda runs through every aspect of our vision and strategy. For us, it’s all about really understanding what our clients need from us. And that means listening. Plus, we are born in 2020 and embedded in the world of now, so the use of innovation and technology to achieve results, better and faster, is in our blood. There’s no digital transformation for us to adopt. We’re ready to take on our clients’ biggest challenges right now.”
