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.

Thomas Wigley

Resident Managing Partner, Trowers & Hamlins

THOMAS WIGLEY is the Resident Managing Partner in Trowers & Hamlins’ Oman office and joined the firm in 2004. Tom specialises in the energy sector and leads the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources team. He specifically works on power generation and transmission, water and infrastructure development projects, along with oil and gas work.

Mathilde Plenat

Associate / Partner (France), DWF

Mathilde advises French and international groups on a wide range of employment issues in France: she partners with clients on the implementation of businesses in France; she assists with matters of collective negotiations with the works council and the unions on various matters (working time, compensation, change of collective bargaining agreement, etc.); she specializes in restructuring operations in France, specifically related to site closures, site transfers and redundancy plans; she is experienced in complex employment-related litigation.

Babita Ambekar

Partner & Head of India Practice (Singapore)

Babita Ambekar has over twenty years of experience in Asia Pacific having worked in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. She regularly handles multi-jurisdictional assignments across Asia in relation to employment matters and has advised on aspects relating to the hiring of contract staff, restructuring-related layoffs, employment disputes, termination and dismissals, employment policies and procedures and employee share option plans.

Babita has been recognised by clients as a “seasoned, mature and capable lawyer [who is] dependable, effective and quick to respond”. She is conversant in a number of Asian languages and has on-the-ground experience in Singapore, India, Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Taiwan, Korea, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Ingrid Nixon

Solicitor (UK), DWF

Ingrid is a solicitor the London employment team at DWF Law advising on a range of contentious and non-contentious matters. She regularly advises clients on various employment issues including contracts, policies and procedures, redundancy processes, TUPE in the context of business transfers and outsourcing and grievance and disciplinary issues. Ingrid also has expertise in advising on projects involving corporate restructuring, reorganisations, mergers and acquisitions.

Ingrid graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a First Class Honours degree in Law. Ingrid was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2014 and has dual qualification as a solicitor and practising certificates in both England and Northern Ireland. Ingrid sits as a committee member of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) international committee. Ingrid is regularly instructed by US clients who are establishing or have an existing presence in the UK.

Noor Al Taraif

Associate, Zu’bi and Partners

Principal Practice Areas: Corporate & Commercial, Litigation

Noor joined Zu’bi and Partners in 2014 and holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from SOAS, University of London. She has experience in liquidation procedures, bond and sukuk issuances, medical device legislation, civil aviation law, commercial companies’ law, copyright law, Central Bank of Bahrain law, labour law and telecommunications law. Noor has contributed articles to Oxford Business Group’s The Report, The World Bank’s Doing Business series and Clifford Chance’s MENA Women and Work report, The Oath and LexisNexis.

Most recently, Noor has contributed to the Bahrain section of Herbert Smith Freehills’ Middle East Anti-Bribery and Corruption Regulations Legal Guide for 2018 and the Bahrain section of The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law Report for 2018.

Recent Assignments

• Major role in legal team for issuance of US$1,250,000,000 6.75 per cent Bonds due 2029 and US$900,000,000 7.50 per cent Bonds due 2047 by the Kingdom of Bahrain, acting through the Ministry of Finance
• Assisted in legal team for establishment of US$3 Billion GMTN Programme for The Oil and Gas Holding Company BSC(c) and the issuance of US$1 Billion notes thereunder
• Advised in relation to restructuring of the US$117 Million Commodity Murabaha Facility between Ithmaar Bank and Ahli United Bank
• Assisted in legal team for issuance of US$850,000,000 Shariah-compliant trust certificates due 20 March 2025 by CBB International Sukuk Company 6 S.P.C. for the Kingdom of Bahrain, acting through the Ministry of Finance
• Major role in liquidation of two Central Bank of Bahrain licensees
• Acted for a purchaser of shares in a Bahraini company, along with completing due diligence for the share purchase transaction
• Advised in relation to the logistics of company formation and structure in Bahrain
• Acting as external counsel consistently advising retainer clients such as major financial institutions on various day-to-day operations matters
• Advised on labour law matters and obtained Human Resources manual approval from a government body for a well-known vehicle manufacturing company
• Conducted aviation jurisdictional analysis for a commercial aircraft financing and leasing company
• Advised a multinational oil and gas company on hydrocarbons licensing regulations in Bahrain
• Advised a global vehicle manufacturing company on logistics of implementing network connectivity in its vehicles in accordance with Bahrain telecommunications laws
• Advised a multinational tobacco company on the legality of distribution of new tobacco products in Bahrain
• Advised on a worldwide competition to be run as a collaboration between a leading beverage company and a pre-eminent entertainment company
• Contributed to a database of Bahrain data retention requirements for a major enterprise information management service company
• Advised on potential claims arising from a championship league football club’s acquisition transaction
• Acted for a Bahrain ancillary service provider in relation to implementing a nationwide electronic funds transfer service