Last week, we reported on how law firms were reacting in the first week after the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran.

The message from law firms in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia was one of “business-as-usual”. Lawyers noted that while precautionary measures involving remote working protocols were enacted, client interactions had seen little to no change.

Today, March 11, marks the 11^th day of the conflict. This second week has brought continued strikes across the region, including in Tehran, Lebanon and Israel, the election of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader, and increasingly harsh statements from both US officials and Iranian security leaders in press conferences and on social media.

For this follow-up report, we gathered information on the early impact of the conflict on M&A activity and pipelines in the region, aiming to understand sentiment among both lawyers and their clients.

We approached a large number of firms in the region – from local ones to international and ‘big law’ players with hubs across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh – though many of them declined to comment on the matter or did not respond to our request for comment.

We did, however, gather responses from three law firms: UAE-headquartered Tribonian Law Advisors, Addleshaw Goddard and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, which say transactional work is largely unaffected but activity may slow down and become more costly if the conflict continues.

Steady for now

Rindala Beydoun, the office managing partner of Dubai-headquartered law firm Tribonian Law Advisors, says the firm already had several deals ongoing as the conflict began.

“Those are still going. Last week, I thought we would stop hearing from clients, but actually they are still engaging,” she says from the firm’s office in Beirut.

“However, the ones where we had just been engaged have not really kicked off yet. I don’t have visibility now on what the pipeline would look like.”

The firm, which operates in the UAE, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, includes M&A as a core practice area with Beydoun managing around 20 M&A lawyers herself.

Tribonian works on a number of inbound regional deals, mostly mid-market, ranging from $50 million to $300 million in value. Beydoun stresses, however, that’s it’s been less than two weeks since the conflict started so it’s too early to estimate the long-term impact on regional M&A.

“So far, it is better than I thought it would be, but it takes time for things to trickle down. At the moment, the world has not stopped. It is not Covid,” she continues.

“Whether deal flow will resume as normal is very difficult to predict. It would be naive to say that we are not going to see a negative effect on the region – we have had a very good few years of M&A activity, and if I have to make a call, I will say it will slow down. The question is how much.”

The firm has taken a hybrid approach to office work, with many lawyers and partners working from home until the end of last week but returning to the office from Monday, March 9.

“We made it optional and left it for each person to decide. In any event, we are very well prepared to work remotely, and there is no impact on our productivity or operations,” adds Beydoun.

Robin Hickman, head of Middle East at Addleshaw Goddard, tells IFLR that the firm is seeing a return to normality in its jurisdictions.

“The Middle East is remarkably resilient,” he notes. “The Middle East remains open for business and clients are currently operating near normally whilst, like Addleshaw Goddard, focusing on the safety and wellbeing of staff.”

He adds that transactional work for the firm has not been impacted: “Clients continue to require our legal support as they progress with ongoing transactions, and we have received numerous requests for proposals for new transactional work across the region in the past week.”

At Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Chris Walters, head of corporate for the Middle East, echoes both Beydoun’s and Hickman’s comments. He says clients are taking the events “seriously” and local response teams are continuing to monitor working arrangements, supply chains and other matters that may be affected.

“M&A is likely to continue, however there will probably be a shift in the type – for example, inbound, outbound, domestic – of M&A and sectors driving deal flow. At the moment we are not seeing any significant change to our clients’ M&A plans for 2026,” he tells IFLR.

“This is particularly true for outbound investments and other diversification initiatives that involve international deployment of capital. A prolonged conflict is likely to increase uncertainty, and foreign investors will likely pause their investment decisions until there is a clearer view on how the conflict will be resolved and when.”

He adds that the macro-economic impact of a prolonged conflict could see deals becoming more expensive, with companies delaying investment decisions as a result.

“Defensive strategies may also be adopted to preserve cash. However, we would not expect deal activity to slow down completely as there may be opportunities for distressed assets, certain critical sectors will come into focus and regional corporates may look to new jurisdictions to hedge against any slowdown in Middle Eastern countries in which they currently operate,” he concludes.