Denton Wilde Sapte appoints TMT head for Middle East practice

Based in Dubai Internet City (DIC), Phil will lead a team of 12 TMT lawyers across the firm's DIC, Dubai, Muscat and Abu Dhabi offices. He will join Denton Wilde Sapte in March.

"Phil brings a wealth of experience in the regulatory and commercial aspects of the telecoms industry," says TMT Sector head John Worthy.

Acknowledged as an expert telecommunications lawyer and a regulatory and public policy specialist, Phil has worked in the Middle East, Europe and Australasia. His experience covers all industry sectors - including mobile, fixed and internet - within both competing and incumbent operators. Previous positions include Executive Director level posts in the UK at One2One (now TMobile), Worldcom (now MCI) and Global Crossing.

In addition to continuing strengths in IT and IP, the past twelve months have seen Denton Wilde Sapte's Middle East TMT practice rapidly expand its presence in the telecoms market - an area which now generates around 50 per cent of revenue.

"We see tremendous growth opportunities within the telecoms space. The appointment of a telecoms expert such as Phil reflects our commitment to this industry and puts us in an excellent position to capture future opportunities," says John Worthy.

Denton Wilde Sapte's Middle East TMT clients include EITC, TECOM, Vesta and Concept Group. Last year the firm also advised the Ministry of Finance of the Government of the Sultanate of Oman on a $400m (£229m) IPO of state-owned Omantel.