Biography
Naina is an Associate in the Disputes practice based in Dubai, specialising in investigations and compliance matters. She has experience advising corporates, financial institutions, and sovereign wealth funds on complex internal and regulatory investigations as well as other sensitive compliance matters across the Middle East (including both onshore and offshore jurisdictions of the UAE) and involving cross-border issues.
Naina has acted on a range of high-stakes investigations involving allegations of conflicts of interest, insider trading, white-collar crime (including bribery, corruption and money laundering), financial services regulatory breaches and other internal policy breaches (including digital and procurement policies). She has navigated investigations involving whistleblower reports and senior employee misconduct, advised on employment-related issues and guided clients on reporting obligations. Naina has experience conducting internal policy and procedure reviews, benchmarking exercises and gap analyses to advise on policy uplifts and remedial actions. She has also advised on non-contentious compliance matters in the context of due diligence for corporates and financial institutions.
Prior to joining White & Case, Naina worked for a Magic Circle firm in their Dubai office and had completed a six-month secondment in their London office. Naina also spent a year and a half in-house at an international, TMT company based in Dubai, where she regularly enforced and delivered training on adherence to new internal policies and promoted awareness of compliance standards across the business.
Naina also has experience in advising on arbitration matters and managing enforcement actions.
Experience
Representative experience includes, advising:
a DIFC regulated financial institution on its reporting obligations to the relevant regulators, its internal investigation and responses to the DFSA stemming from alleged breaches of insider trading laws and internal policy.
a multinational corporation on the sale of its UAE-based entity with historic compliance issues.*
a leading property development company based in KSA with its internal investigations of alleged senior employee misconduct, policy breaches relating to conflicts of interest and procurement processes and managing and defending subsequent labour court proceedings.*
a UAE-based entity with an internal investigation under onshore UAE law relating to alleged breaches of insider trading laws and policies and their reporting obligations to the SCA.*
a multinational financial services company, headquartered in the UK, on compliance issues and potential reporting obligations under federal and ADGM AML law arising from a potential acquisition of an ADGM-based entity.*
a UAE-based regulatory authority with drafting a new regulation.*
a UAE-based investment company in respect of an enforcement action in India arising from a misappropriation of funds and strategic considerations, resulting in five litigation workstreams.*
a UAE-based leisure and entertainment company on an insurance claim arising from an onshore criminal investigation.
a UAE-based investment company in defending DIAC-based arbitration proceedings concerning alleged breaches of an SPA for a sale of land.*
* Experience prior to joining White & Case.
