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Abigail Cannon

Associate
Dubai
About

Abigail is an employment lawyer advising multinational corporations, regional businesses and start-ups across the Middle East. Her practice spans the full spectrum of labour and employment laws in the UAE (including onshore, freezones, the DIFC and the ADGM), as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Abigail's experience covers day-to-day employee relations matters, terminations, restructures, advising on market entry, complex workplace investigations at executive level, whistleblowing matters, discrimination allegations and sensitive senior exits. She is also known for her skill at the intersection of employment and data privacy law, where she has advised on contentious employee data subject access requests, workplace risks in relation to employee data handling and compliance.

Areas of FocusEmployment
Professional QualificationsSolicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales
Education

  • Nottingham Law School, Master of Laws (LLM), Legal Practice Course

  • Nottingham Law School, Master of Laws (LLM), General Law

  • Nottingham Trent University, Bachelor of Laws (LLB), Law with Business

EXPERIENCE

  • Advising a global hotel operator on contractual requirements for the secondment of UAE employees across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Providing day‑to‑day employment law advice to a well‑known global technology company, including in relation to bonus schemes, incentive arrangements, and hiring models.
  • Advising a multinational corporation on employment models and specifically the engagement of interns across multiple UAE jurisdictions.
  • Conducting independent workplace investigations for multiple higher education institutes, including witness interviews, statement drafting, report writing, and presentation of findings to relevant committees.*
  • Advising ADGM‑based companies on compliance with the changes introduced under the ADGM Employment Regulations 2024.*
  • Advising a global financial services provider on restructuring, workforce reduction and disciplinary matters.*
  • Successfully defending a European healthcare company against allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.*
  • Advising a high-profile individual on the employment law requirements in the jurisdiction, as well as drafting highly confidential employment documents.*
  • Advising on the global transformation project of a global engineering consultancy company including conducting training for HR employees, providing a document suite and managing case-by-case negotiations.*
  • Advising an academic institution on a complex whistleblowing investigation.*
  • Advising national and international companies, law firms and consultancy providers on the cross over between employment and privacy legislation including employee monitoring, multi-jurisdictional projects and employee privacy policies.*
  • Advising start-ups on their entry into the UAE employment market including applicable law summaries, document suites and immigration advice.*
*Denotes experience attained prior to joining DLA Piper
Languages
  • English

Seminars

Labour law training for a global professional body and an academic institute in Dubai

Prior Experience

  • 2024 – 2026, Employment Associate, International law firm in the UAE
  • 2019 – 2024, Employment Solicitor and Trainee, International law firm in the UK
  • 2018 – 2019, Legal Assistance, global manufacturing company in the UK

Connect

Phone

+971 4 438 6183
(Work, Dubai)
+971 55 713 0967
(Mobile, Dubai)
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