Personal bio
Maria is a senior associate based in the Disputes Management team in our Dubai office. She is an international commercial arbitration lawyer, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a practising Arbitrator. Maria is listed as one of the leading private practice arbitration practitioners in the Middle East in The Legal 500 Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist 2022: Middle East. Maria is fluent in Arabic, English and French. Maria's practice is typically multijurisdictional and includes advising on UAE Law as well as various other Middle Eastern jurisdictions, in both contentious and non-contentious transactional, advisory, and/or pre-dispute work contexts. Maria’s practice is predominantly rooted in international commercial arbitration and/or international commercial litigation, with a dual focus on construction as well as technology and IT disputes. Maria is an active member of the arbitration community, a frequent speaker at conferences, and contributes regularly to online news/media outlets and journals, including Khaleej Times, Arabian Business, Emirates Law and Lexis Nexis. Maria has also authored a comprehensive analysis of the UAE Federal Arbitration Law, which has been published in the International Journal of Arab Arbitration and been the subject of radio, magazine and newspaper interviews. More recently, Maria has co-authored a chapter for GAR on the use of arbitration in new technology disputes, including for virtual currency, NFT, data, and AI-related disputes. Maria holds a Master’s (LLM) degree from Queen Mary University of London with a specialisation in Alternative Dispute Resolution and a focus on international construction and commercial contracts and arbitration. Maria also holds a second post-graduate diploma in International Commercial Arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.