Dr. Fahad Al-Zumai

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law – Kuwait University

DR FAHAD AL-ZUMAI holds a PhD in Law from SOAS – the University of London, and an LLM in International Business Law from the University of Manchester. He is admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and to the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Kuwait. He is a fellow at the International Bar Association.

Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Law in the Private Law Department at Kuwait University. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Law Journal published by Kuwait University.

He was the principal author of several recent legislative reforms, including insolvency and competition law.

Dr Al-Zumai’s research interest includes Companies and Capital Markets Laws, Bankruptcy, and Banking Law. In addition, Dr Al-Zumai has published in several journals on topics relating to capital market regulations in the Middle East and Europe, law and economics, and jurisprudence.

Dr. Yousef AlYaqout

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law – Kuwait University

DR YOUSEF AL YAQOUT is a certified arbitrator and legal advisor and is currently an assistant professor of pleading and arbitration law at the Faculty of Law at Kuwait University. He holds a Bachelor of Law Degree from Kuwait University. He later obtained several post-graduate degrees from several institutions, including:

• PhD In Private Law from the University of Lorraine, France
• Master’s Degree in Private Law, University Of Strasbourg, France
• Master’s Degree in The Private Law With Insight, College Of Graduate Studies, Kuwait University

Dr Yousef has participated in many local and international workshops and conferences; and has conducted many legal courses in dispute resolution, corporate law, electronic transactions, and others. He is an accredited trainer with the GCC Commercial Arbitration Centre and the Kuwait Center for Commercial Arbitration.

Dr Yousef has published several articles and scientific research in local and international legal journals. He also supervised master’s theses for postgraduate students. He holds memberships with several governmental and private committees related to academic affairs, the development of regulations and procedural laws, and investigation committees.

Dr. Fayez Abdullah Al-Kandari

Professor of Private Law at the College of Law, Kuwait University

DR. FAYEZ ABDULLAH AL-KANDARI is an associate professor of Private Law at the College of Law, Kuwait University. He is a registered lawyer before the Constitutional Court and the Court of Cassation. He is also the Chairman of the Legal Consultants Committee in the Kuwait Banks Association and is the Federation’s legal advisor.

Dr. Al-Kandari is an arbitrator accredited by many local and international arbitration centres. He is the winner of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Award for Scientific Production in “Social and Human Sciences”. Moreover, he served his role as President of the Cultural Office at the Kuwait Embassy in Paris. He has owned many titles at Kuwait University, whether it concerns the Deanship of Student Affairs or the management of the Center for Classification and Programming of Judicial Judgments. Dr. Al-Kandari also held a position at the Ministry of Higher Education for two years.

Dr. Anwar Al Fuzaie

General Counsel

DR ANWAR AL FUZAIE is General Counsel at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advanced of Science (KFAS). He holds an LL.B. from Kuwait University, an LL.M. and PhD from Montpellier University in International Business Law from Sophia Antipolis University and an LL.M. in International Business Law from Sophia Antipolis University. Dr Anwar has published many studies in the field of Private Law. He has extensive experience in various areas of law, including:

• Arbitration
• Banking and Financial Institutions
• Real Estate
• Labour Law
• Intellectual Property

Dr. Anas Al-Tourah

General Secretary of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry

DR. ANAS AL-TOURAH is a former lawyer and former member of the Kuwaiti Lawyers Association. He currently fulfils several advisory roles, including Secretary General of the Kuwait Commercial Arbitration Centre (KCAC), a position he has held since 2014; and Legal Advisor for the Minister of Commerce and Industry, a position he has held since 2017.

Dr. Al-Tourah previously represented the KCAC in the United Nations committees, specifically the Commercial Arbitration Committees in New York and Vienna. He is also a member of the Faculty of Law, Kuwait University, and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Law at Qatar University. He has participated in and chaired several legal drafting committees as well as presented numerous courses and workshops of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and the General Organisation for Social Insurance.

Dr. Al-Tourah has published numerous research in specialised scientific journals in Kuwait, the Netherlands and Cairo on legislative drafting, child rights and employment of persons with disabilities. Dr. Al-Tourah holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Sharjah University, and master’s degree and Ph.D. in Private Law from the Constance University, Germany.

Dan Partovi

Partner, Jones Day

Dan Partovi has 15 years of experience advising significant companies, private equity and sovereign funds, and government entities on complex international transactions in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and across the MENA region. His focus includes M&A, joint ventures, international trade, complex commercial relationships, and structuring foreign direct investment into the Middle East.

Dan is experienced in sectors including hospitality, F&B, consumer goods, retail, real estate, financial services, energy, telecommunications, and manufacturing. Representative transactions include: acting for the Saudi Advanced Industries Company in the sale of NPS Bahrain to Fajr Capital (the largest announced private equity transaction in the MENA region in 2014); USG Corporation’s $1.6 billion joint venture with Boral; and advising Cardinal Health on its $1.9 billion cash acquisition of Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis business. Other institutions that Dan has advised include China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Hilton Hotels, LinkedIn, Macquarie Bank, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Orange/France Telecom, Procter & Gamble, Renault, The Riverside Company, SAP, Schneider Electric, Starwood, Toyota, and government institutions of the United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, and France.

Dan is the author of the official commentary to the Companies Law of the Dubai International Financial Centre (published by the DIFC Academy and LexisNexis) and provides the legal community with continuing education on companies law and governance. He has been recognised by The Legal 500 and Chambers for M&A, corporate & commercial, energy, and telecoms media and technology transactions and acknowledged as being able to “really understand the business issues behind the legal documents.”

Dustin Appel

Senior Associate, Baker Botts

Dustin’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and international arbitration, particularly in the energy sector. Drawing on his economics and accounting background, he often works with clients and experts regarding damages modeling and other financial aspects of litigation.

Prior to law school, Dustin worked for several years in Russia and Central Asia in the freight forwarding industry providing logistics services to the energy and mining sectors. Dustin is proficient in written and spoken Russian. Dustin then entered public accounting, where he worked on audit and tax engagements for clients as varied as securities broker-dealers, construction contractors and heavy equipment lessors. He also has experience in industry accounting in the oilfield services sector. Dustin continues to maintain a license as a Certified Public Accountant.

Mark Brown

Partner, Al Tamimi & Company

Mark Brown is a Partner in the Banking and Finance practice in Abu Dhabi.

Mark is a specialist banking and finance lawyer with significant experience advising financial institutions with respect to transactional lending, product development, customer insolvency and legislative change. Mark’s experience also extends to assisting corporate borrowers from a range of industries, debt capital markets transactions and advising on UAE projects.

Peter Manning

Partner, Simmons & Simmons

Peter is a restructuring and special situations partner advising on all aspects of rescues and re-constructions. He has extensive experience in insolvency and corporate re-construction law, both contentious and non-contentious.

He has acted for a broad range of clients, including banks, insolvency practitioners, debtors and creditors. Recently an increased proportion of his work has been advising directors of financially distressed companies.

Peter has been ranked as a leading practitioner by Chambers every year since 2003.