London-headquartered international shipping and corporate law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has promoted former Trilegal lawyer Dhruv Paul to its partnership, in a round of six promotions.

Paul is based in its Dubai office, which was set up in 2014, in the firm’s aviation, assets and structured finance practice.

He is dual qualified in England & Wales, and in India, having obtained his law degree in 2008 from ILS Pune.

Paul had begun his career with Trilegal in Delhi but in 2013 moved to Dubai to join Clyde & Co, which had strong India exposure via its tie-up with Clasis Law.

He briefly returned to Trilegal in Delhi in 2015 for six months as counsel, but in 2016 joined WFW in Dubai.

According to a WFW press release, in aviation he “regularly represents banks, lessors, airlines and operators on a wide range of aircraft finance transactions”, with clients including “leading banks, lessors and airlines, apart from ultra-high net worth individuals”.

In the corporate field he had advised corporates “looking to enter into the Indian or Middle Eastern market, as well as Indian or Middle Eastern companies looking at outward investments or investments”, according to WFW.

Four of WFW’s other five promotions were in London in Paul’s practice group or in maritime, assets and structured finance, taking its total partnership size to 173.

WFW is one of the UK’s larger law firms, with revenues of £131m in 2015-16, making it one of the UK’s largest specialist shipping and maritime law firms.