Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today?
Over the last twenty years I have worked as a lawyer in private practice in Asia, Continental Europe and London. I advise lenders and borrowers on a wide range of finance transactions from secured and unsecured lending through project, structured, asset and leveraged acquisition finance. When I returned to London from establishing a finance practice in the Netherlands for Freshfields, I seized the role of heading their Islamic finance capability. I worked closely with the firm’s Shariah specialists based in London and the GCC. I then joined Addleshaw Goddard in February 2008 as an infrastructure and energy finance lawyer with a brief to build an international banking and project finance practice. The firm was also looking to develop an Islamic finance capacity
What does your role involve?
My role involves building an Islamic finance practice. I do this through capturing the opportunities which our many existing banking and borrower clients have, as well as attracting new clients for Addleshaw Goddard through our Islamic finance expertise.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
In the first quarter of this year we have greatly expanded our Islamic finance capability through the recruitment of Dominic O’Brien and Asmeen Ibrahim. Dominic joined us from Herbert Smith and is a highly regarded banking lawyer with first rate Islamic finance credentials including advising on Shariah compliant project finance transactions (including Rabigh), leveraged acquisitions and more general lending transactions. Asmeen joined us from Norton Rose and has comprehensive Islamic finance credentials built up during her time practicing in Malaysia and in London. Dominic and Ash’s arrivals have signaled the transformation of our Islamic finance capability from a passive capability into an area of excellence in our full service banking practice.
Which of your products/services deliver the best results?
A transaction my partner Andrew Maskill worked on was awarded Islamic Finance news’ Best Islamic Leasing Deal of the Year 2009. This has helped us to be instructed on high profile transactions involving feeding assets into an existing Sukuk Issuance platform and advising the arranger on the issue of an Ijarah-based Sukuk for a household name corporate.
What are the strengths of your business?
As an on-the-ground Islamic finance team based in London providing sophisticated advice, we perceive we have an advantage over many of our competitors whose Islamic finance capabilities are increasingly based in the GCC or elsewhere. There is also great strength and depth in Addleshaw Goddard’s client base which includes all the major UK banks and building societies, one of the largest FTSE 350 client bases among law firms and great strength in the real estate finance sector.
With almost 700 lawyers and a full service practice we also have an international best friends network of the most prominent independent practices. This allows us to provide the highest quality of legal services anywhere in the world. We maintain our network through regular dialogue and sharing of opportunities and best practices with our best friends which naturally include firms in the Gulf, Maghreb and Southeast Asia.
What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
Addleshaw Goddard is a very entrepreneurial law firm with an unrivalled UK regional presence in Leeds and Manchester, and a commitment to further invest in and raise its City and international profiles.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
The main obstacle is that many clients believe it is not possible to provide a seamless competitive international service unless a law firm has offices in every major jurisdiction. Clients do not realise that a high quality non-exclusive law firm network solution often delivers superior results.
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry in, say, the next five years or so?
The Islamic finance industry will undoubtedly continue to gain ground and develop. But, we also see that it stands at a crossroads.
The ever greater sophistication of financial products being developed, which in substance imitate conventional finance products, are seen by the finance industry as a positive development. They place Islamic finance on a level playing field with conventional finance.
Whether this is an altogether positive development from an Islamic point of view is a moot point. Professionals engaged in the Islamic finance industry would do well to remind themselves of this from time to time and ensure they do not lose sight of the underlying purpose of an alternative ethics based financial system.
Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance.
To create some form of greater Shariah Board clarity over what is Shariah compliant and what is not.