London, Dubai – DLA Piper has appointed Al-Harith Sinclair to head its regional financial regulatory practice based in Dubai. Al joins DLA Piper from Pinsent Masons’ London office where has was also a partner. Al has relocated to the Dubai office in order to build the regulatory practice as part of the firm’s ongoing expansion across the Gulf and the Middle East. Al is the first UK financial regulatory partner to move to the region.
Al’s experience spans a career of 10 years in London, the bulk of which was at Clifford Chance and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He brings with him a wealth of financial regulatory experience, particularly in investment bank regulation, retail financial services regulation, e-financial services regulation and financial sector mergers and acquisitions. He will work closely with Jayshree Gupta, who heads the office in Dubai, in order to target global and local financial institutions in the region and build a strong team.
Al, who joined in November 2006 commented: “DLA Piper is positioned at the local level in order to assist its global clients manage their compliance with the financial regulations that apply in each jurisdiction. I am very excited to be extending this capability across the Middle East. The swift rise of world class financial centres such as the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Qatar Financial Centre, as well as strong financial markets in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain has attracted attention from financial institutions worldwide. But there is a lot of regulation for financial sector clients wishing to be part of the Gulf’s flourishing capital markets. To cater for this strong demand for regulatory services, we are actively recruiting more lawyers.”
Jayshree Gupta, DLA Piper’s Office Managing Partner in Dubai, commented: “We are delighted to have Al on board as we intend to deliver a full range of legal services across the Middle East. With the growth in the financial services sector in the region and sophistication in the legal regime in this area, regulation is a key focus for us. Al’s excellent technical skills and wealth of relevant experience will, we believe, be very attractive to our banking and financial institution clients expanding inside and outside the region. This is a unique and specialist service, DLA Piper is the only legal services organisation in the region to have a specific financial regulatory offering at such a level.
