Alexandra Plain, previously General Counsel of AccorHotels MEA based in Dubai, joins The Bench to head up the firm’s leading Hospitality & Leisure practice. Prior to moving in-house to Accor, Alexandra was a Partner at the leading international law firm Squire Patton Boggs in Dubai and France and before that held various private practice roles at CMS, Landwell, Paul Hastings, Mayer Brown and Gowling WLG.
Alexandra is a senior hospitality lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience. She has an in-depth expertise in the drafting and negotiation of hotel management and franchise agreements in Europe, Africa, and Middle East. She also has extensive knowledge in advising investors, including investment funds, on their acquisitions and disposals of real estate either through share or asset deals. Her practice includes corporate, M&A, private equity, and all sort of real estate transactions, and her experience covers work in connection with the negotiation of share purchase agreements, joint venture and shareholders agreements, technical services agreements, advisory services agreements, leases and property and asset management agreements.
Joby Beretta, Founder of The Bench commented “We have worked with Alexandra as a client for a number of years now and we are delighted that she has decided to join forces with us here at The Bench. Her extensive experience of working on hotel deals across the wider EMEA region will provide our clients with wider geographical coverage than we could previously offer, including French speaking countries”.
The Bench boasts the largest team of senior hospitality lawyers with UAE in-house experience including Joby Beretta (ex Jumeirah), Yulande Neethling (ex ICD) and Elise Gillians (ex Meraas). The Bench lawyers are consistently recognised as amongst the leading real estate and hospitality lawyers in the United Arab Emirates and the team is ranked yet again in the Legal 500 Real Estate UAE 2023 , which reported “The Bench’s approach always feels supportive and displays a great deal of understanding of what their client is trying to achieve, they have a ‘no fuss’ approach and just get the job done.”.