Whether your secondment takes you to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, your Arabian nights can be guaranteed to be an great experience. The big business centres of the Middle East attract trainees with the guarantee of fine weather, high-profile work and exotic glitz. Oil has turned Abu Dhabi from a small fishing village into one of the richest cities in the world in just 40 years, and skyscrapers and palm trees now dominate the landscape. The capital of the UAE is planning on growing itself to 30 million people by 2030 with new exciting developments like an F1 racetrack and a cultural island that has a Guggenheim and a Louvre. Trainees find the city is incredibly Westernised and that culture shock minimal. If Abu Dhabi isn't to your liking, flashy Dubai and the beautiful Muscat, the capital of Oman, are two very different conceptions of a Gulf city. March to September is the best time to go, although you’ll be air-conditioned all year round. Temperatures of up to 50°C make the summer months the quietest (and cheapest), but you won’t get as many public holidays.

Work: “Many firms have made a big push in this region,” explained one source in what could be said to be a slight understatement of the facts. The evolution of these legal markets has been rapid (arguably too rapid in the case of Dubai) and, as one trainee put it, a trip out to the Gulf is “a very good opportunity to see how a firm gets a presence in a region and develops it from a small office to a large outfit.” As you might expect, a large part of the transactional work here is oil-related. Though much of the market has been reeling in the wake of the global economic problems, the Middle East retains a decent level of work, particularly in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. “The clients here are quite demanding and they like things to be done quite quickly. Most of them are quite sophisticated and want detailed advice.”

At a time when greater transparency is expected from banks, Islamic finance, which “emphasises a code of morality and fairness,” has brought about new opportunities in the region. There is also a variety of other areas of work for trainees to become involved with, ranging from major construction and project finance matters in Dubai to litigation and arbitration in Oman. Trainees at established firm Trowers & Hamlins have even had the opportunity to work on government matters. Disputes are often colossal, however some of our sources did get the opportunity to “manage smaller cases on my own,” though it is important to recognise that court appearances are generally reserved for local lawyers. Though “you don’t have to speak Arabic to fit in,” trainees may work on local legal matters as well as dealing with English law. Don’t fret too much about the alien codes - our sources spoke of having plenty of supervision. A typical working day runs from 8am-1pm and then 4pm-7pm, with the lunch break best spent swimming, waterskiing or taking a nap. It appears as if the office to beat is Reed Smith, which boasts “three jacuzzis and an outdoor pool on the roof!” The week runs from Saturday to Wednesday, with some trainees required to work Thursday mornings. One trainee noted that “the upside of coming in on Sunday is that they’re quite quiet as it’s a weekend in most other places.”

Rest and play: Simply put, the Middle East is “a good place to work if you’re an expat” as you’re given everything on a plate, from a luxurious apartment (often with sea view) to memberships at elite health clubs, a car and petrol allowance, and a cleaner. One trainee told us that work aside, “it's a nice cushy lifestyle, I didn't have to iron a shirt for six months!” Trainees we spoke to commented on the minimal difference “between work and social life.” They explained, “you're probably a lot more reliant on people you meet professionally. A lot of the fee earners would go out for lunch and meet each other at weekends and evenings.” Dubai is considered “the most sociable” of the cities in the region, though keep in mind that your desire to drink in public places will be restricted by the strict Islamic codes. Generally you’ll have to take your beer in a hotels. In fact, if the British couple caught getting far too jiggy on a Dubai beach last year has taught us anything it’s that you have to be quite careful about when and where you lose your inhibitions. Trainees counsel that these “cultural quirks and norms need to be learnt” as “it's not the most open and friendly society in the world.” However, far from living like a monk on secondment, “you kind of tend to find yourself living in a bit of an expat bubble where there is any number of very nice bars and a ridiculous number of five-star hotels.”

The scene in Abu Dhabi and Muscat is much smaller, and mostly done among other expats as locals only make up about 5% of the total population. Expect diving trips, volleyball tournaments and weekend ‘duning’ aplenty. And if you get sick of all that outdoorsy fun, you can always take a cultural trip to one of the other countries within striking distance, say Egypt or Jordan. We’ll leave the last word on fun to the trainee who told us: “You can never get enough of lounging by the pool.” Caveat epicure: “I gained a pound or two on the hotel buffets alone.”