New appointments at The Bench

Aston Benjamin-Taylor & Hameed Almihdar

The Bench has appointed Aston Benjamin-Taylor to head-up the growing Hotels & Leisure team. Aston has over 12 years’ experience gained initially in the UK in some of the leading sports and media law firms (Olswang and Lewis Silkin) before moving to Dubai in 2013.  He was subsequently senior legal counsel at Jumeirah Group for over five years, where we worked on a wide range of hotel development, operations, engineering and general commercial projects.  Prior to joining The Bench, Aston was a principal & head of Lifestyle Practice at The Support Legal Group in Dubai. His main areas of specialism include hospitality, corporate, commercial, IP and media.

The Bench has also welcomed Hameed Almihdar to The Bench’s growing Real Estate & Construction Team. Hameed has over nine years’ real estate, construction and disputes experience. He started off his career in the Dispute Resolution and Construction team at Dentons based in Dubai, where his focus was on arbitration and overseeing legal proceedings in the Dubai Courts.  He was subsequently senior legal counsel at Nakheel for over six years, where we worked on a wide range of real estate, hospitality, retail, corporate and commercial, disputes, and employment matters. Whilst at Nakheel, Hameed’s work was recognised in the Legal 500 GC Powerlist 2018.