Denton Wilde Sapte has captured the services of construction and arbitration expert Peter Shaw in an effort to boost its contentious construction practice ahead of what is expected to be exponential growth in the area.  Shaw, who will be based in the firm's Dubai office, joins from US firm Taylor Wessing where he was the Middle-East head of construction.

In addition to acting on contentious and non-contentious matters, Shaw has also been appointed as an arbitrator and as a construction expert in related determinations and will become one of only a handful of arbitrators permanently based in the region.

His appointment tops off a busy six months for Dentons in the Gulf. In addition to relocating arbitration partner Paul Stothard to the region from its London office in September last year it brought Paul Davies on board in late 2008 and elevated Dubai-based duo Dean Alderton and Udayan Mukherjee to its partnership.