Eileen Duncan

Head of Trowers & Hamlins Real Estate, Middle East. Oxford educated, UK qualified partner with over twenty five years experience in the commercial real estate sector, with expertise in acquisitions and disposals, mixed-use developments, corporate occupiers, commercial leasing, asset management, and real estate finance support. Skilled in managing development projects, portfolio transactions, and cross-border transactions with UAE, DIFC, ADGM and KSA experience. Strong background in leadership, communication, and strategic planning.

• Built substantial professional network in Dubai from the ground up within two years, swiftly adapting to a new legal jurisdiction and commercial market and rapidly acquiring the market knowledge necessary to advise clients and generate business at pace.
• Leveraged deep expertise in UK real estate to serve as a key conduit between the Middle East and UK practices, facilitating cross-border investment opportunities that directly generated instructions for both the UAE corporate and UK real estate teams.
• Originated and secured PGIM International as a new institutional client, demonstrating the capacity to identify, develop and convert high-value relationships.
• Increased real estate instructions from ADD and OMRAN panel re-appointments, reinforcing and deepening key strategic client relationships.
• Expanded the team’s transactional track record across the UAE and KSA markets, strengthening the firm’s competitive positioning for panel tenders and new business pitches in priority Gulf jurisdictions.

• Leading firm’s Middle East real estate practice, operating across UAE, Bahrain, Oman and KSA
• Developing strategic direction of team
• Supervising two senior and one junior lawyer across Dubai and Bahrain
• Recruitment
• Budgeting
• Client development

Middle East, Exclusive Private Members Club — DIFC, Dubai, Acting for the tenant in connection with the establishment of an exclusive London-based private members club within the DIFC. Advising on and negotiating a bespoke agreement for lease and lease. Identifying that the transaction documentation proposed by the developer — whilst designed to align with an existing sale and development agreement with the site’s ultimate investor — was insufficiently sophisticated to protect our client’s interests. Proposing and securing alternative structuring of the documentation and works obligations, ensuring our client’s position was fully safeguarded within a complex, multi-party transaction framework.

Hotel Repurposing, ADNOC — Acting for ADNOC in connection with the repurposing of two of its Abu Dhabi properties for hotel use, including the negotiation of franchise agreements and the structuring of third-party operator arrangements. Proposing a bespoke hybrid structure incorporating a lease model, carefully mitigating the risks ordinarily associated with a landlord and tenant framework, to recognise that this is not a core business activity for the client and enable it to transfer as many operational liabilities as possible — including the direct employment of staff — to the operator, which is atypical for a conventional Hotel Management Agreement. 

Branch Campus Lease — University of New Haven, Misk City, Riyadh. Acting for the University of New Haven in connection with the negotiation of a lease for its new branch campus at Misk City, Riyadh. We advised on the standard form Ejar Unified Commercial Lease Contract and, recognising its limitations for our client’s particular circumstances — including the newly constructed nature of the building and the extent of the proposed academic fit-out — drafted a comprehensive rider of special conditions to strengthen our client’s position. We also identified a significant risk arising from the prevailing regional hostilities and the inadequacy of the standard contractual force majeure provisions. We advised on the applicable statutory framework and drafted bespoke force majeure provisions for submission to the landlord, materially reducing our client’s exposure to circumstances outside its control.

Franchise Agreements — Muscat Resorts, Oman, Acting for Muscat Resorts in Oman in connection with the negotiation of franchise agreements to introduce the Benihana Japanese teppanyaki restaurant brand and The Coffee Club to its sites in Oman. We drew on our regional expertise and commercial understanding of franchise structures to negotiate terms that appropriately balanced the commercial interests of our client against the requirements of two internationally recognised brands, facilitating our client’s expansion into the food and beverage sector.

Group Reorganisation — Family-Owned Aggregates Business (68 UK Properties), Leading the real estate team acting for a family-owned aggregates company in connection with the property elements of a group reorganisation involving approximately 68 properties, comprising a mix of office and industrial sites and agricultural assets designated for mineral extraction. The transaction was structured in two phases — the transfer of assets from subsidiaries to parent, and then from parent to a new holding company — presenting significant complexity given the diversity of assets and the range of third-party rights impacted. We devised solutions for properties subject to existing third party rights, structured intra-group leaseback arrangements, drafted options for mineral extraction, and managed the assignment of overage entitlements. Where sites were transferred only in part, we addressed the appointment of planning liabilities and the creation of appropriate new easements and reservations on a site-by-site basis. We designed and managed the entire process, establishing standardised documentation, agreeing information collection protocols with the client, and mapped out a programme of key milestones against which we reported throughout — ensuring every workstream, including the procurement of all third-party consents, completed simultaneously and in alignment with the corporate closing on 1 January 2024.

Office Leasing and Asset Management — Man Group, Riverbank House, London, Acting for Man Group in connection with a complex programme of leasing transactions at Riverbank House, London, in respect of premises sub-let to Fieldfisher. Our scope encompassed the original lettings, as well as subsequent renewals, regears, pre-emption arrangements, options for additional space, potential surrenders of whole or part of existing accommodation, and the refurbishment of other areas — all of which required careful coordination and management across multiple concurrent workstreams. We negotiated consent from Man’s landlord and secured favourable variations to Man’s head lease of the building, which carries a rental of approximately £20 million per annum. Our ability to manage the full lifecycle of a complex commercial real estate relationship — across both asset management and transactional work — delivered a co-ordinated outcome for our client.