Julia is a senior associate in the Corporate and Commercial groups of our Dubai office.
She specializes in advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, cross border joint ventures, private equity investment, restructuring, franchise and agency/distribution arrangements. Julia furthermore advises on corporate governance, regulatory and compliance aspects, as well as general corporate and commercial matters.
Claire Melvin is Publisher for Middle East content at LexisNexis and has worked for Reed Elsevier for over 25 years.
During that time she has been the Publisher for the New Law Journal magazine, Inner Temple Year Book and Counsel Magazine, has run the Lexis Library and Tolley Library legal news service teams and was the Head of the Halsbury’s, Stair and Digest teams.
She also worked as Content Lead of the migration of content to Lexis Library.
She transferred to Lexis Middle East to launch the first Middle East online service and has had responsibility for law, news, cases, article and book content on that service since its inception.
She has also launched and run two Middle East Legal magazines, edited several books on Middle East Law and acted as an Editorial Adviser to the DIFC for the Laws of the DIFC series, DIFC Court Rules loose-leaf and the publication of an annual case report series.
Ahmed is an Associate in the Litigation team in Dubai. He has over 6 years of experience in Egypt and the UAE. His practice focuses on Banking, Real Estate and Construction related disputes before the UAE Courts and in arbitration.
Ahmed has advised on several contentious and non-contentious construction-related matters in both the litigation and arbitration practices. He has had exposure to construction claims that are mainly focused on the technical aspect as well as claims with commercial aspects only.
In particular, Ahmed has expertise in construction claims that had disputed variations, prolongation costs and extension of time applications. He had also been involved in claims that focused on the validity of termination of construction contracts and its consequences.
Ahmed is also well-familiarised with the FIDIC suite of contracts, and has acted in many disputes that are governed by the FIDIC conditions of contract before the UAE Courts and in arbitration, with a special focus on the validity of the arbitration agreements usually incorporated in such forms.
Justin is a senior associate in our arbitration department and has extensive experience advising clients in arbitrations governed by various institutional rules (i.e., ICC; UNCITRAL; LCIA; DIFC-LCIA; DIAC; CAS; FIFA and CAM) as well as in ad-hoc arbitration proceedings.
The disputes that Justin handles most frequently involve construction projects and international commercial agreements, including supply contracts, sale of goods (CISG) contracts and distribution agreements. Justin has also assisted clients in disputes relating to sport agreements.
Justin similarly has experience in non-contentious matters within the construction sector, such as negotiating and drafting construction agreements.
Admitted as a lawyer in New York State in 2014, Justin was also admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2017 as well as an Avvocato Stabilito in Italy in the same year. He is fluent in both English and Italian.
Muhammad represented numerous entities and individuals in Egypt in various fields of law before joining Al Sulaiti Law Firm in 2010. He deals with both contentious and non-contentious matters in both English and Arabic. Muhammad’s experience exceeds ten years in litigation, corporate and contracts fields.
Muhammad enjoys an excellent experience in drafting, reviewing and negotiating various types of contracts in addition to his remarkable risk assessment and avoidance skills. Thus, he heads the Corporate & Contracts Department of Al Sulaiti Law Firm.
Emma is an employment lawyer with over 17 years’ experience. She was promoted to Partner of the firm in May 2018 and manages the employment practice in Qatar.
Emma incorporates her extensive knowledge of Qatari laws and regulations when advising both Qatari and international clients. Emma leads a team specialising in employment matters. Emma’s practice and team is/are based in Qatar, but Emma also draws on regional expertise where pressure of work requires it. This specialist team advises on the full scope of employment matters, including advising in relation to immigration, negotiating contracts and termination settlements, drafting and advising on policies and procedures, best practice and compliance and Labour Court claims. Emma’s employment practice incorporates health and safety capabilities.
Clients in this year’s Legal 500, referred to The ‘absolutely outstanding’ Emma Higham focuses on employment issues and ‘goes above and beyond’ for her clients, providing ‘in-depth knowledge of the law and practice in Qatar.
KAPIL KUMRA has over 30 years of experience in Project & Corporate finance (with over 19 years in the GCC). Kapil has been the head of the Project Finance team at Foreign Corporate Group, National Bank of Kuwait, since 2014.
Previously Kapil was with Arab Bank’s Offshore Business Unit at Manama, Bahrain, where he was involved in the origination and execution of Corporate and Project & Structured Finance mandates in the Middle East and South Asia region.
Kapil has worked on a number of PPP projects in Kuwait, including expansion financing of the largest Wastewater Treatment plant and bids for projects tendered by the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP). Kapil is also a board member of the IPFA (International Project Finance Association) Middle East Region.
ZAIN AL ABDIN SHARAR has over 23 years’ experience in the legal field. Prior to joining the QICDRC, Dr. Sharar was the Director of Legal Affairs & Enforcement at the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA). Dr. Sharar also served for three years on the QFMA’s disciplinary committee.
Dr. Sharar has taught corporate law and corporate governance at a number of Australian universities and has provided advice to board members of several Australian publicly listed companies. He worked at Qatar University for three years as an Assistant Professor of Commercial Law, where he taught companies law and arbitration law. He has also taught commercial law and maritime and aviation law at the Ahmad Bin Mohammed Military College in Qatar and has lectured on many topics at the Legal and Judicial Studies Centre at the Qatar Ministry of Justice.
Dr. Sharar is a certified mediator at the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in London and a qualified arbitrator at the GCC Commercial Arbitration Centre. He has provided mediation and arbitration services in many commercial and construction cases. He also participates in ADR training programmes.
Dr. Sharar has a Bachelor of Laws, a Master’s in International Trade Law, and a Doctor of Legal Sciences from Bond University in Australia, specifically focused on corporate governance.
Ibtissem Lassoued has extensive experience advising international clients on a spectrum of
complex, multijurisdictional white collar crime issues, including but not limited to anti-money
laundering and counter-terrorist financing, global economic sanctions, anti-corruption issues
including the extraterritorial effect of the US FCPA and UK Bribery act, complex fraud, extradition
and INTERPOL notices, and Capital Market investigations. Ibtissem offers clients a full and practical
knowledge of the remit of inter-governmental organizations, in particular in relation to the FATF
and MENAFATF, and the effect of these on anti-corruption efforts, confiscation of the proceeds of
crime, de-risking and the reporting of suspicious transactions.
Ibtissem has been ranked as Band 1 in Chambers Global for Corporate Investigations for 6
consecutive years since the category’s inclusion and is commended for being ‘a brilliant
practitioner’, ‘as passionate about her area of expertise as she is knowledgeable’ and ‘stunningly
good at what she does’.
In February 2021, Ibtissem was appointed as the Chair of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial
Crime Middle East and North Africa Chapter. Her work with the Global Coalition involves strategic
oversight and direction of the Global Coalition’s activity in all MENA countries and active
involvement in the development of an effective financial crime system across the public and
private sectors. In 2019, she was ranked amongst Financial News’ 50 Most Influential Women in
Middle East Finance, and is currently serving as a member of the International Advisory Board of
the CEELI Institute, a non-profit non-governmental organisation based in Prague, Czech Republic,
dedicated to advancing the rule of law.
Desiree F. Moore is a litigation partner in the Chicago and Doha offices of K&L Gates. She is the founding member and co-lead of the firm’s Digital Crisis Planning & Response (DCPR) client solution. She counsels corporations, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, sports leagues, and high-profile individuals in proactively planning for and effectively managing crises of varying magnitudes, including data breach, online defamation, harassment, and impersonation, university and other education scandals, celebrity disgrace events, key person transitions and investigations, leaked confidential and proprietary information, and more. Her work balances the considerations of a public-facing crisis with smart and prudent legal action. Desiree has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and more on behalf of clients who are navigating high-pressure situations.
Desiree also regularly helps clients proactively identify and manage the risks associated with social media use. She counsels individuals and corporations alike on social media best practices, how to effectively implement regulations for social media use in and outside of the workplace, and how to implement disciplinary measures for unlawful social media use.
As a trial attorney, Desiree has successfully litigated in state and federal court and has managed high-level disputes in sectors such as cryptocurrency, social media, intellectual property, entertainment, product liability, labor and employment, and class action defense at the trial and appellate court level.