Melissa Forbes-Miranda

Melissa is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer with over 15 years of experience advising on both regional and cross-border corporate deals and various corporate and commercial legal issues.

Having been based in Dubai for over 13 years, Melissa is a trusted advisor and key point of contact to many multinational and regional clients for their legal needs across the Middle East region

Melissa has a reputation for providing legal advice that is commercially relevant, on-point, adds value and is strategic to the needs of the client, and is recognised as a “Rising Star” in the field of commercial, corporate and M&A by Legal 500 EMEA 2022.

Melissa’s practice focuses primarily on M&A, joint ventures, FDI (foreign direct investment), restructuring and insolvency, corporate and shareholder disputes, and private equity / venture capital.

She also has expertise in commercial, outsourcing and technology mandates such as distribution and agency arrangements, franchising and licensing, regulatory issues (particularly licensing, competition law and corporate governance issues), hotel management agreements, supply and service agreements, and commercial disputes.

Melissa has a particularly strong reputation for her expertise in the technology sector, having worked on various matters relating to data centres, data security, defence technology, healthcare technology, technology product manufacturing and distribution, software licensing and development, fintech, e-commerce, online advertising and media, internet of things (IOT), and blockchain / cryptocurrency.

Melissa also has clients that span across a broad range of other sectors, including financial services, insurance, life sciences, healthcare, industrials and manufacturing, consumer, real estate and construction, professional services (particularly education), and hotels and leisure.

Expertise