The first time I met Nita Maru in person was some time in 2013 when I was still working in a prominent national daily, and I was collaborating with her on a few articles about the UAE legal scene. She had graciously invited me to drop by their offices at Jumeirah Lakes Towers to “put a face to the name” so to speak. We had been on the phone a couple of times and exchanged a number of emails without having really met in person, and I was keen to meet her as well.
Just a few minutes prior to meeting the founder and managing partner of TWS Legal Consultants, “a full service law firm that deals with all aspects of succession planning, wills, company formation, corporate, commercial, and family law matters,” I had expected a very formal and imposing person to greet me the moment the door to their conference room opened – and I never was more wrong!
Nita warmly greeted me with a hug and sat me down, animatedly talking about her cares as a businesswoman, law practitioner, and as a mother and wife. She seemed to be and actually is the epitome of a successful female entrepreneur thriving in a still traditionally male-dominated UAE society. So she naturally came to mind when I was asked to write a story about a successful woman entrepreneur in the UAE scene.
At first, Nita had no choice but to take an indefinite career break to focus on helping their children adjust to their new life in Dubai, but her restless entrepreneurial spirit and thirst for new knowledge led her to discover that there was a niche waiting to be filled in the UAE legal scene. She says, “I realized, with my lawyer’s mindset, that where was a huge lacuna in awareness by expatriates of the implications of local laws on their estates and family, and a lack of knowledge on the importance of succession planning in the UAE for individuals and business owners. With more research, it became apparent that there was not a single law firm in Dubai that had a department specialised in wills and succession planning despite the local Sharia Laws. This inspired me to set up my own law firm with a division dedicated solely to this area of law.”
Nita had no choice but to take an indefinite career break to focus on helping their children adjust to their new life in Dubai, but her restless entrepreneurial spirit and thirst for new knowledge led her to discover that there was a niche waiting to be filled in the UAE legal scene.
So began Nita’s challenging journey towards the success she had willed herself to achieve. She built up her own professional network in the UAE business and legal sectors, and quietly worked on getting the necessary license and documentation to found her own law firm.
Nita recalls, “So in 2009, despite the ongoing recession, I was in the midst of passionately setting up my own firm, TWS Legal Consultants. It was a challenging experience. being a British female entrepreneur looking to establish a legal entity in Dubai, the red tape, stringent application process, paperwork, and so on were fast becoming a part of my daily routine. But then the highest point happened when I finally received my license from the Rulers Court of Dubai. Mind you, quite a few months had passed in the meantime, so I was jubilant, so tremendously happy! This was a huge achievement personally, and a major turning point professionally – a dream come true indeed!”
Aside from manning the helm at her law firm, Nita is also an active board member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation in Dubai, and its current Marketing and Communication chief. She continues to contribute articles to various local media and also actively speaks in business forums where she manages to recount and share her own success recipe.
Nita is blessed to have a loving husband and children. They are her inspiration in life. Nita’s advice to those still struggling to make it or dreaming of success: Believe in Yourself. Never let failures or frustrations stand in the way of your dreams. Keep your pureness of spirit; never give up.
About the writer
Claire Dangalan is a Filipina freelance feature writer (a.k.a. Lovely Claire Cachuela) based in Dubai. She is a consummate lover of the arts, especially literature. She taught Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, Humanities and Literature back in the Philippines. Her interests, aside from writing, include the environment, health and fitness, culinary arts, social issues, studies on world view, and “unprofessional photography.”
To connect or read more from Claire:
http://faeriequeenebuknoy.wordpress.com/
http://enthymememyfootandothernonsense.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ReduceYourCO2Footprint
