Edward Butler

Partner, Hamad Al Sharji Peter Mansour & Co

EDWARD BUTLER specialises in Construction & Engineering Law and Arbitration. He has extensive dispute resolution experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, including roads, ports, tunnels, airports, metro projects, power stations, water and wastewater projects, FPSOs and pipelines, and prestigious hotel and residential developments.

Edward leads teams in significant arbitrations and litigation. He is a Solicitor Advocate with Higher Rights of Audience. He regularly acts as counsel and co-counsel in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations under LCIA, ICC and UNCITRAL rules. He is also a Board Member of the Omani British Lawyers Association (OBLA). Edward was recently ranked in Chambers & Partners for his work in Dispute Resolution in Oman.

Said Al Shahry

Founder and Managing Partner, Said Al Shahry & Partners (SASLO)

Said Al-Shahry is Founder and Managing Partner of SASLO. He is also an active member of SASLO’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team.

He has over 30 years of experiences as both legal advisor and an advocate at all courts throughout Oman at the primary and appellate levels, including before the Supreme Court. He has significant experience in dealing with “high-profile” cases representing various clients, including Government-owned entities as well as local and international corporates.

He is expert in handling complex disputes across a range of sectors and is well-known in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, with particular expertise in construction arbitration. He has guided clients through effective arbitrations, mediations and administrative hearings, achieved numerous court case victories and negotiated many favorable settlements.

Due to his vast knowledge of Oman’s judicial system, Said participated, as an expert advisor, in preparation of various laws and government regulations and drafting Royal Decrees and ministerial decisions, such as the Tender Law, Law of Commerce and the Electronic Transactions Law.

Mr. Al Shahry delivers lectures and participates extensively in conferences and training courses relating to the development and reform of laws in the Arab word. He has also been involved extensively with the development of the practice and the profession of advocacy inside the Sultanate of Oman and the GCC region.

Prior to starting his own practice in 1992, Said held the post of Director of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Oil and Minerals. He served as a Member of the Majlis Al-Shura, the elected chamber of the Omani parliament, representing Salalah, the capital city of Dhofar Governorate from 2003 till 2007. He has also several contributions in the public field such as memberships of the Omanisation committee, Unified Admission Center and the Consumer Protection Committee.

Omar Al Hashmi

Founding Partner, Al Hashmi Law

Omar Al Hashmi is an accomplished bilingual lawyer proficient in Arabic and English and is qualified in Oman.  His in-depth legal experience involves advising on a broad spectrum of contentious and non-contentious matters in all specialties for Omani and international clients.

He manages a strong team of legal professionals from different countries and has developed a strong legal network across the world with affiliations and work associations with several leading law firms, through which he provides expert legal services to his clients located in different parts of the world.

His office provides a full range of legal services, including corporate, commercial, dispute resolution (arbitration, mediation and local and international litigation) besides real estate, construction, tax, etc.

Ahmed Al Abri

Partner, Head of Insurance Law Practice and Head of Tax Practice, S&A Law Firm

Ahmed is a Founding Partner of S&A Law Firm, having qualified as an advocate in 2009.

Ahmed has acted for clients in numerous sectors such as energy, insurance and telecommunications and he has also represented clients in employment and partnership disputes. He is licensed to appear before the Courts of Appeal.

He leads the Firm’s tax practice, which is primarily a contentious practice, and the insurance practice.

Ahmed is the Firm’s Compliance Officer.

Abdullah Al Nabhani

Partner, Head of Criminal Law Practice and Head of Employment Law Practice, S&A Law Firm

Abdullah qualified as a lawyer in 2008 and subsequently worked with two global firms before establishing S&A Law Firm.

Abdullah is primarily a litigator; however, he also has experience in the corporate, consumer protection and property sectors (including integrated tourism complexes – ITCs), and he leads the Firm’s criminal law and employment law practices. His litigation practice includes construction, partnership, corporate, employment, consumer protection and property disputes.

He also has significant arbitration expertise and recently he acted for a client in the construction sector and was successful in cancelling an arbitration award against his client for an amount in excess of USD 54 million.

Abdullah is the Firm’s HR Partner.

Ali Al Rashdi

Partner, Head of Dispute Resolution Practice and Head of Maritime Law Practice, S & A Law Firm

Ali qualified as an attorney in 2006 and for the past 15 years he has gained extensive experience as a dispute resolution lawyer dealing with claims in the construction and maritime sectors and employment and shareholder disputes.

Ali also has significant experience advising clients in complex criminal cases involving issues ranging from alleged corruption to fraud.

Also Ali has advised and represented numerous clients in the maritime sector and in particular he has been involved in ship arrests, claims for negligence involving damage to port infrastructure and acting for the P&I Clubs and other insurers of ships and cargoes.

He has a growing reputation in the field of arbitration, acting both as a legal advisor and arbitrator.

Prior to founding S&A Law Firm, Ali worked as a senior associate at two global law firms in Oman from 2006 until August 2019.

Ali leads the Firm’s Dispute Resolution and Maritime Practices.

Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Zadjali

Chairman of Omani Lawyers Association (OLA)

DR. MOHAMMED IBRAHIM AL-ZADJALI is an Omani national chairman of Mohammed Ibrahim Law Firm. He has a master’s degree in law and a PhD in criminal law. He speaks Arabic and English. He is conversant in Corporate, Civil, Labour, Intellectual Property, Real Estate and Criminal Laws of Oman. His practice focuses on Criminal, Civil, Family and Sharia matters. In 2014, he was elected President of the Omani Lawyers Association (OLA). He was elected as a Council Member of Majlis Al Shura in 2015.

Mohammed Paracha

Head of Middle East, Norton Rose Fulbright (Middle East) LLP

Mohammed Paracha is a banking and finance lawyer based in Dubai. He is Head of Middle East, as well as head of our Islamic finance practice for the Middle East and Africa.

Mohammed has been active in the Middle East for nearly 20 years, having worked in our London and Bahrain offices before moving to Dubai in 2011. He became Head of our Middle East practice in January 2021.

His practice focuses on all types of Islamic Finance covering a wide range of asset types, investment classes and industrial sectors. With a background in asset and project finance, Mohammed advises on Sharia compliant asset finance, trade finance, real estate finance and project financings. He also advises on the structuring of Islamically acceptable investment funds and has advised on the establishment of new Islamic financial institutions in various countries. Mohammed has strong relationships with many of the internationally renowned Sharia scholars and is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Islamic finance topics.

Mohammed’s clients include multi-lateral development banks (Islamic Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and ICIEC), commercial banks (BNP Paribas, HSBC, SCB, Bank ABC and SMBC) and regional banks (Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD and Mashreqbank).

Mohammed is the project lead on the on-going Islamic Codification Project for Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC). A further highlight of Mohammed’s career includes being appointed to the Bank of England’s Committee on Islamic Finance which then paved the way for London to become a key global hub in the industry.

Mohammed is recommended as a leader in his field by Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, Acritas and IFLR.

Rana Moustafa

Associate, D&C Legal Services

Ms. Rana is a lawyer with D&C Legal Services, member of the Egyptian Bar association, holding extensive knowledge in European, French and International Business Law. She holds two LLM degrees in International Private Law and Public Business Law and arbitration from University of Paris Pantheon I-Sorbonne, Paris, France and double License degree from Cairo University, Egypt and France.

Ms. Rana developed an experience by involving in the assistance on many commercial regional, local and international corporate legal matters and advises for high profile firms in Gulf.

She has developed a focus on intellectual property matters related to trademarks, copyrights, and domain names, while conducting several legal research and drafting papers in IP matters, drafting and reviewing IP agreements for high profile clients in Gulf and colossal projects as well as corporate, employment, construction, and services agreements. Miss. Moustafa has experience with IP transactions and in giving advice on cross-border jurisdictions matters. she has also assisted clients with IP diligence within corporate transactions and trademark registration in Egypt.
She also gained IP experience across the Mena region while working with D&C Legal Services team in their offices in Lebanon, Qatar, UAE, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria.

As part of D&C Legal Services team, she has advised clients on the best means of protection for their IP rights, especially with regards to trademarks and copyrights. She assisted clients with their trademark and copyright registrations, renewals, and necessary trademark search in the MENA and especially in Egypt.

She is fluent and able to work in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Mohamed Al Aradi

Associate at Aurifer Middle East Tax Consultancy

Mohamed is a tax advisor specializing in tax disputes, international and direct tax at Aurifer Middle East Tax Consultancy DMCC.

Mohamed is skilled in a comprehensive series of tax laws and principles including Corporate Tax, Withholding tax, Double Taxation Agreements and Transfer Pricing. He has acquired a strong legal and tax background from the United Kingdom, especially with regards to International Tax.

He is heavily engaged in GCC tax litigation cases where he prepares high-value objections, settlement requests and appeals. He also focuses on providing advice to multinational enterprises and GCC-companies on their transaction flow, corporate structuring and tax authority assessments.

Mohamed also participates in liaising with GCC tax authorities regarding client tax issues in GCC and drafting tax ruling/clarification requests.

Main sectors advised include but are not limited to, Financial services, Pharmaceutical, Defense, Construction, Transportation, Logistics, E-commerce and Government bodies.

Mohamed holds a Masters of Tax Law from Queen Mary University London, and a Bachelors of law from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Mohamed is fully bilingual in English and Arabic and is on track to be a qualified lawyer.