Jones Day has hired Eric Milne as a partner for its Dubai banking and finance practice. Milne, who comes to the firm from Simmons & Simmons, also counts projects finance, M&A and structured finance among his specialties. Milne’s arrival makes him Jones Day’s third partner in its eight-lawyer Dubai office.

Milne has worked on some of the region’s most innovative transactions of the last few years. He acted on Sourouh Real Estate’s US$1.1bn Sun Finance real estate transaction, advised a bank syndicate in connection with the US$1.2bn financing for satellites Yahsat 1A and Yahsat 1B for a subsidiary of Mubadala Development, and was retained by the MTN Group in its US$5.53bn acquisition of a Dubai-based Investcom. 

Milne is the firm’s first lateral hire in the region. Jones Day opened its Dubai office in March 2009.ALB