Andrew Maguire

Barrister, Littleton Chambers

Andrew is a highly regarded chancery and commercial advocate, who has built up an impressive reputation in the fields of contractual and fiduciary disputes; many involving banking and financial services claims, including personal guarantee and indemnity disputes, in addition to high value professional negligence disputes.

He has considerable experience in relation to international and domestic civil fraud and asset-tracing cases, often involving pre-emptive injunctions, particularly freezing and proprietary injunctions and cross-border enforcement of judgments and anti-suit injunctions.

Andrew is regularly instructed in matters concerning breach of trust and fiduciary duties and joint ventures and disputes between shareholders and company directors and co-venturers involving claims for breach of fiduciary and directors’ duties, as well as disputes arising from sales of businesses and misfeasance and wrongful trading claims. This also includes business protection claims, involving restrictive covenants, confidential information and breach of fiduciary duty as well as the economic torts.

Andrew has been instructed on various cases involving mis-selling of financial investment products and pension products; some of which have involved judicial review applications and Group Litigation Orders and cross-border claims.

Much of Andrew’s work, in litigation and arbitral proceedings, has a strong international element, with his international clients based in the Middle East, Africa, India, China, Russia, and the USA. The cases on which he is instructed often raise complex jurisdictional and conflict of laws issues and involve English court proceedings in aid of arbitral proceedings and in connection with the enforcement of arbitration awards and foreign judgments.

Andrew is a registered practitioner at the DIFC and registered to appear at the Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts and a member of the DIFC/LCIA arbitration and mediation Panel, in Dubai.

Nasser Messaike

Associate, D&C Legal Services

Mr. Messaike is an Associate at D&C Legal Services. He is a talented lawyer who already has the opportunity to interact with and advise on some of the most delicate litigation, arbitration, real estate, commercial, and corporate matters.

Mr. Messaike specialises in corporate, commercial, IP, labour, and real estate law. He has extensive experience in providing legal opinions and conducting research tasks on different legal issues in the aforementioned fields of law.

He has participated in various commercial and corporate projects, in which he assisted partners and clients on complex issues, including corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, joint venture establishments, a variety of commercial agreements, etc.

Moreover, he has also attended court and arbitral tribunal hearings in civil, commercial, and corporate litigation and in arbitration proceedings.

Luigia Ingianni

Commissioner at the Employment Standards Office-QFCA

A Lawmaker with more than 3 decades of exponential experience in employment, labour law and human resources, organisational development, values-based leadership, inclusion and diversity, occupational safety and health and data privacy across different countries and legal systems – civil and common law jurisdictions.

Expert conciliator (ILO certified) and adjudicator of employment disputes, Luigia has established the first administrative employment dispute resolution centre in the Middle East operating under the ILO guidelines.

Policy maker, transforming the labour law landscape in Qatar, Luigia has designed innovative legislation and policies with particular focus on gender equality, decent work, justice and partnerships – UN SDGs 5, 8, 16 and 17.

Experienced gender equality activist with a background in drafting policies and legislation to attract, retain and empower women in the workplace, fostering male engagement in diversity and inclusion to achieve gender balance.

A passionate advocate and a voice to end gender-based violence, in 2019 Luigia has published the first QFC policy for the elimination of bullying, harassment and all forms of violence in the workplace.

Empathetic, human-centered and values-based leader, Luigia is committed in empowering team members to unlock their potential and achieve ambitious client-focused goals leveraging personal and corporate values.

International strategic counsel, diplomatic-sensitive and aware of cultural influence, Luigia uses her 360-degree vision, strategic thinking and rhetorical skills to influence and persuade different audiences.

Goal-oriented, excellence-driven and client-focused, Luigia keeps abreast of latest researches and analyses labour market trends to anticipate the needs of the clients and ensure timely delivery and high satisfaction.

Recognized for excellence, Luigia is member of the WHO working group of the World of Work Dialogue and is regularly invited as speaker at national and international conferences and seminars, including Chatham House, International Labour Organization (ILO), World Health Organisation (WHO), International Bar Association (IBA), International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO), Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs of the State of Qatar, as well as Universities including Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar University and Carnegie Mellon University Qatar.

Saurbh Kothari

Senior Associate, Afridi & Angell

Saurbh joined the firm in 2008. He advises both local and international clients on a broad range of corporate and commercial, mergers and acquisitions, and employment matters.

Saurbh’ s practice includes:

• Advising on all aspects of the purchase and sale of businesses, including due diligence, structuring of the transaction, negotiation and documentation of the deal;
• preparing a broad range of commercial agreements;
• advising on a wide variety of UAE corporate and commercial legal issues;
• advising on the structuring and establishment of businesses in the UAE; and
• advising on UAE employment matters, including within the UAE’s various free zones.

Representative transactional experience includes:

• Advising a buyer in the acquisition of 60 per cent shares and investment in a UAE based aluminium extrusion company for AED 80 million.
• Advising the sellers in the sale of 100 per cent shares of a UAE based carton boxes and packaging manufacturing company for approximately AED 50 million.
• Advising a U.S. food manufacturing and distribution company on a joint venture with a UAE based food manufacturing and distribution company for setting up regional food processing and distribution plants.
• Advised the insolvency administrator of a German listed company on the restructuring of the said company’s UAE operations and asset sale to a Spanish multinational financial services company.
• Acting as local counsel for a Saudi Arabian multinational listed company in relation to due diligence over the UAE entities in the business of baking products manufacturing.
• Advising the sellers in the sale of shares of UAE entities in the water purification and bottling business for approximately AED 160 million.
• Acting as local counsel in relation to the sale of shares of UAE entities in the packaging materials business for approximately US$199.70 million.
• Advising a UAE entity on a joint venture for the setup of restaurants in Dubai with an initial investment of approximately AED 29 million.

Bashir Ahmed

Managing Partner, Afridi & Angell

Bashir is the managing partner of Afridi & Angell. He joined the firm in 1988 and became a partner in 1993. He advises clients on cross-border acquisitions and divestments, general corporate and commercial, private equity, banking, licensing and maritime matters.

Bashir has extensive experience in domestic and cross-border acquisitions where he advises buyers and sellers on the due diligence process, the deal structuring, and drafting of agreements in connections with acquiring and divesting of share interest in the UAE. He also advises international and domestic banks on a wide range of matters including loan and credit facilities, syndications and regulatory matters. He was seconded to the regional office of an international bank for a period of 18 months, and acted as counsel for the Middle East and South Asia operations.

Bashir has also advised on a number of mining, refinery and smelter projects as well as infrastructure projects. His maritime practice involves advising ship owners and P&I Clubs, dry docks and a number of ship repair companies on shipbuilding contracts, arrest of vessels, cargo claims, as well as advising on disputes. He represents a number of banks on ship financing transactions.

Justin Whelan

Partner, HFW

Justin leads our dedicated Middle East cyber and data privacy team. He is experienced in cyber-related claims and has spoken widely on cyber security, cyber insurance and data privacy to numerous risk carriers, policyholders and industry experts across the region and in the UK. Our Middle East cyber/data offering draws on the extensive skills and experience of our lawyers across our different sector groups and regional offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, KSA and Kuwait.

Adnan Mohammed Abul

Vice Chairman, Kuwait Bar Association and the Kuwait Association for Protecting Public

ADNAN MOHAMMED ABUL is currently the Vice Chairman of the Kuwait Bar Association and the Kuwait Association for Protecting Public Funds. He received his LLB Law Degree from Kuwait University in 2007. He is also licensed to appear before the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation. Adnan is a registered arbitrator in the Arbitration Center at the Kuwait Bar Association and the National Sports Arbitration Tribunal. He is also a member of Association Internationale des Avocats du Football (AIAF).

Dr. Mounirah Al-Namash

Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Law and College of Law, Kuwait University

DR. MOUNIRA AL-NAMASH is an Assistant Professor in the General Law Department at Kuwait University. Her specialisation is in Administrative and Constitutional Law. Dr. Al-Namash received her bachelor’s degree in Law from Kuwait University in 2007. She then went onto earn her Master of Public Law from Kuwait University in 2011, and the University of Lorraine in 2014. She earned her Doctorate in Administrative Public Law from the University of Lorraine. Prior to her current work, Dr. Al-Namash served as a legal researcher and an associate legal auditor.

Dr. Sami Al Hathal Al-Anzy

Assistant Professor of Civil Law, College of Business Studies, Public Authority for Applied Education

DR. SAMI AL-HATHAL AL-ANZY is an Assistant Professor of Civil Law at the College of Business at Public Authority for Applied Education. Previously, he worked with the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority in Kuwait (CITRA) from 2017- 2021, providing legal support and advice in areas such as Telecommunications, E-Commerce, Information Security, Data Protection, Cloud Computing, and Domain Names. During his time at CITRA, he aided negotiations with corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft, Ali Baba, and Raytheon.

Dr. Al-Hathal Al-Anzy received his LLB from Kuwait University in 1996 and was admitted to the Kuwait Bar the same year. From there, he began practicing with a specialisation in Contract Law, Commercial Law, Corporate Law, IPR’S, Telecommunications Law, and IT Law. In 2001, he received his LLM degree from Strathclyde University in the United Kingdom. Between 2002-2006, he was the IPR Manager for the Gulf Region at Microsoft Gulf. In 2014, Dr. Al-Hathal Al-Anzy received his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow.

Dr. Yousef Al-Sulaili

Partner and Head of Arbitration Department, Al-Yaqout and Al-Fouzan Legal Group

DR. YOUSEF AL-SULAILI currently serves as Partner and Head of Arbitration Department at Al-Yaqout and Al-Fouzan Legal Group. Previously, he was a member of the Board of Directors at Ooredoo and a Faculty Member of Kuwait University, with a specialisation in Civil and Commercial Law Pleadings. He was also a Faculty Member at the Kuwait International Law College in the Department of Private Law and a member of the Board of Directors of the Kuwait Center for Commercial Arbitration.

In 1994, Dr. Al-Sulaili received his bachelor’s degree in Law from Kuwait University. He then earned his master’s degree in Law from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In 2003, he received his Doctor of Law from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Al-Sulaili’s main specialisation is arbitration and he became a registered arbitrator at the Arbitration Center of the Kuwait Bar Association in 2007, and for the GCC Arbitration Center in 2013.