Alastair Young

Office Managing Partner, Dentons

In January 2017 Alastair Young relocated to Dubai from the Dentons’ London office where he had been based since joining the firm in 2011. Alastair leads the Middle East Disputes practice where he has been practising since 2007. He has a wealth of experience acting for international companies operating in the region. He specialises in the resolution of engineering and construction disputes. His practice involves all forms of dispute resolution, ranging from international arbitration to litigation in the Technology and Construction Court to statutory/contractual adjudication and ADR (including mediation and expert determination).

Jonathan Silver

Head of Middle East & Africa, Clyde & Co

Jonathan Silver has over 39 years of experience working in the Middle East in the areas of international mergers & acquisitions, private equity, banking and finance, restructuring and foreign direct investment. He has worked with clients in most business sectors including insurance, financial services, international trade, energy, construction, shipping and commodities. He has led numerous transaction teams assisting clients to navigate the regulatory complexities of multi-jurisdictional transactions. Jonathan is the head of Clyde & Co’s operations in the Middle East and Africa, holding this role since the merger of Clyde & Co with his own practice in 1989. He is a member of the firm’s MEA Regional Board and of the firm’s Global Management Board.

Samer Qudah

Managing Partner, Al Tamimi & Company

Samer Qudah is the Managing Partner of Al Tamimi & Company and also heads the firm’s Corporate Structuring Department. Samer has extensive experience of over two decades in structuring and restructuring entities and businesses for clients operating throughout the Gulf and the broader Middle East region. He has wide ranging experience advising major blue chip organisations, financial institutions, government and semi-government concerns, SMEs, private equity funds, FMCGs and TMT companies on a wide range of issues, in particular M&A transactions, legal due diligence, joint ventures, drafting and negotiating commercial agreements, agency law issues, regulatory affairs, electronic transactions and other corporate law related issues.

Mohammed AlSuwaidi

Managing Partner, Al Suwaidi & Company

Mohammed R Alsuwaidi was admitted to all courts of the UAE in 1986 and founded Al Suwaidi & Company in 1997. Previously, Mohammed was the Head of Legal for Emirates General Petroleum Corporation. He was President of the Organisation of Young Arab Lawyers and was Deputy Chairman of the UAE Jurists Association. He has been appointed as an arbitrator in more than 70 arbitrations to date and is often called upon as a UAE law expert on international arbitrations.

Linda Fitz-Alan

Registrar and Chief Executive of ADGM Courts

Linda Fitz-Alan joined ADGM Courts as Registrar and Chief Executive in October 2015. Linda is responsible for leading the administration and operations of ADGM Courts, particularly in the delivery of its comprehensive electronic services, as well as playing a key role in the management of the cases and ADGM’s dispute resolution services.

Linda has more than 30 years’ legal experience, previously serving as CEO and Principal Registrar of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia. At the Supreme Court, she was responsible for the successful implementation of the Court’s electronic filing and case management capability, the design, refurbishment and consolidation of the Court’s civil and criminal Registries as well as the development of its human resources and training. Linda has also been a Partner of two Australian law firms and held a senior legal position with a large commercial insurer, located in New York City, USA.

Lina Adlouni

Lawyer, Arbitrator and Mediator, Al-Yaqout & AlFouzan Legal Group

• Licensed in Kuwait as a practicing lawyer before the High Appeal, Cassation and Constitutional Courts.
• Acting as an independent legal consultant to KDIPA /MOCI for several assignments above is with the World Bank & IFC (International Finance Corporation) for the project of reforming the local legislation process of “Doing business in Kuwait” through legal analysis, contribution towards researching the reform of legislation processes in Kuwait.
• Renders over than 20 years of professional legal experience in all aspects of Kuwaiti law including Commercial, Corporate Insolvency, Banking, Capital Markets and Investment Companies.
• Provides her expertise lies specifically in the following areas; Private Equity, Commercial laws, Corporate Governance, Corporate Finance, Portfolio and Asset Management, Incorporation of Companies, Investment Agreements, Securitization, Debt Capital Market and Sell & Buy Swaps, Restructure Corporates, Intellectual Property and IT, Real Estate Project Development and Property, Bankruptcy, Liquidation, Conventional and Islamic Finance, Franchise agreements, Agency & Distributorship, Foreign Investment and Taxation.

Dr. Qaisar H. Metawea

Managing Partner, Dr. Qaisar Hamed Metawea Law Firm – QHM (Jeddah, KSA)

Dr. Qaisar Metawea is a Saudi lawyer and the founding partner of the Firm. Before establishing the Firm in 2016, Dr. Qaisar practiced as a Saudi attorney for over fifteen years. He is licensed as an attorney by the Saudi Ministry of Justice and is fluent in Arabic and English.

Dr. Qaisar received an S.J.D. degree in International Intellectual Property Law -International Trade Law-, and an L.L.M. degree in International Intellectual Property Law at Indiana University, School of Law, U.S.A. Also Dr. Qaisar completed an L.L.M. degree in Business Law – International Trade Law-, at Case Western Reserve University, School of Law, U.S.A and an L.L.B. degree at King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Qaisar has wide-ranging in-depth experience in legal opinions, legal drafting, negotiating business transactions, company structuring, litigation, and completing registrations in various sectors, and obtaining licenses. Dr. Qaisar is also has extensive experience working closely with executive governmental authorities in policy drafting and review.

Dr. Qaisar assists clients in the following practice areas:

• • Commercial & Corporate Law
  • Construction & Real Estate law
  • Tourism Law
  • Health Law
  • Power & Energy Law
  • Aviation Law
  • Labor Law
  • Foreign Investment
  • Competition Law
  • Intellectual Property & Technology Law

In addition to Dr. Qaisar’s professional practice, Dr. Qaisar has experience as a lecturer at a local law school, and writes a legal column for prominent local newspapers, including Okaz and Arab News.

 

Charles Laubach

Partner, Afridi & Angell

Charles has been practicing as a legal consultant in the UAE since 1986. He advises on general corporate matters, contracts and government procurements, project finance, employment, and international trade controls.

Charles has been involved in numerous high monetary value financing and re-financing transactions. In addition, he provides specialised expertise regarding US, UN, and other sanctions, boycotts, and controls affecting exports to, investments in, and transactions with certain designated countries and with regard to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other bribery prohibitions.

Charles has an active project’s and project finance practice, dating back to the beginnings of the privatization of Abu Dhabi’s power and water sector in the 1990s, with the Taweelah A-1 and Taweelah A-2 projects, and including the first Sharia-compliant asset-backed securitization in the UAE. He also advises international defense contractors on legal matters in the UAE involving negotiation and performance of contracts with the General Headquarters of the UAE Armed Forces, compliance with the “Khalifa Directive” and other integrity obligations, establishment of local offices for the support of programs with the GHQ and other customers, and assistance with offset programs, relying on experience gained since the creation of the UAE’s offset program in 1990.

Since the late 1990s, Charles has been the author of the standard industry UAE law opinions on the various financial agreements used by the ICMA and the ISLA, enabling ICMA and ISLA members to enter into complex financial transactions with counterparties in the UAE.

Charles is well versed in all aspects of UAE and DIFC employment matters and assists clients in preparing employment documentation, and advises on compensation schemes, incentive schemes, confidentiality and non-compete clauses, and workforce reduction programmes. He assists with the employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate restructurings, and handles contentious matters.

Faisal Alasousi

Tax Economist, Kuwait Ministry of Finance

Faisal is a senior tax official and a member of DTA Kuwait Delegation as a tax treaty negotiator. He practiced international taxation orders, principles, and standards since 2012 at the Ministry of Finance – Department of Treasury and Tax. He worked on technical tax issues with a heavy emphasis on law, accounting, and economics.

He also applied tax techniques on cross-border transactions in the field of direct taxation with detailed knowledge of the main tax treaty case-law, tax dispute prevention-resolution, tax regulations, anti-avoidance provisions, and other tax issues.

From a tax policy perspective, Faisal was heavily involved in harmonizing domestic tax rules with the international tax rules. He also participated in numerous tax projects to strengthen the Kuwait tax system toward a sustainable diversified economy. Additionally, he prepared alternative approaches in public finance to increase revenues through taxation to improve the budget.
Furthermore, Faisal contributed significantly in selecting the policy options of the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent BEPS (MLI) for Kuwait and participated in the signing ceremony with 71 countries in Paris 2017.

Conrad Sturm, B.A. (Hons.), J.D., LL.M.

Assistant Professor of Law, Qatar University College of Law

Conrad Sturm is a law professor at the Qatar University College of Law. He joined the QU College of Law in 2011 with a background in teaching law in the U.S.A. and Canada since January 2005. Serving as the Director of the QU Lawyering Skills Program from 2011 to 2018, Professor Sturm and his team brought the first comprehensive legal skills program to the Middle East and the QU Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree. In 2018, the program received international recognition at the 13th Global Legal Skills Conference in Melbourne, Australia, for its leading contributions to legal skills education in the MENA region.

Before joining Qatar University, Professor Sturm taught legal skills to J.D. students at the Ave Maria School of Law (U.S.A.), the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law (Canada), and the Queen’s University, Faculty of Law (Canada). He also taught Master of Laws (LL.M.) and LL.M.-Kellogg students at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.

Professor Sturm has presented at a number of conferences in the U.S.A., Mexico, Italy, Australia, and Qatar. He has served on various Qatar University and College of Law committees and has lectured at the Ministry of Justice in Qatar and QU’s Office of Faculty and Instructional Development.

Professor Sturm earned an Honors Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy) from McMaster University in Canada, a J.D. from Nova Southeastern University in the U.S.A., and an LL.M. from the University of Sydney, Australia. Before commencing his LL.M., he worked in the commercial litigation department of Sandler, Travis, and Rosenberg, P.A., an international trade law firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.