This DIFC Trust and Foundations Law session is part of the DIFC Laws Certificate Programme.
The DIFC Trust Law No. 4/2018 is according to Professor Tony Lee, University of Queensland, ‘an amazing law covering the modern law of trusts. One of its advantages results from the fact that there is no equity court in Dubai, so it was necessary for the DIFC to start from scratch. It has been written in marvelous English and is among the best writing on trusts.’
The DIFC Trust Law is one of the key components of the DIFC’s Wealth Management and Family Business Platform and has been described as “possibly the best Trust Law in the world”.
Another key component of the DIFC’s platform is the Foundations Law No. 3/2018, of which Professor Paolo Panico has written "the ‘torch' of jurisprudential creativity and vision that in the mid-1920s permeated the Liechtenstein Law of Persons and Companies in the original conception of its authors, Wilhelm and Emil Beck, has passed been passed on in our times to the drafters of the DIFC Foundations Law”.
COURSE DETAILS:
Date: 8 July 2025
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Format: Live Online
Platform: MS Teams
SPEAKER:
David Russell, AM KC
Call 1974 | Silk 1986
David Russell KC commenced legal practice in 1974. He is admitted to practise in Australia, England and Wales (Lincoln’s Inn), the Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre, New York (as a Legal Consultant), New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
He currently practises in Dubai, London, and Abu Dhabi (Outer Temple Chambers), Sydney (Ground Floor Wentworth Chambers) and Brisbane (Sir Harry Gibbs Chambers). He has acted for Commonwealth and State Governments as well as individuals and corporations. David was President of the Taxation Institute of Australia from 1993 to 1995, and of the Asia Oceania Tax Consultants’ Association from 1996 to 2000.
David is a current member of the panel of arbitrators of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC).
He has lectured at the University of Sydney for the Master of Taxation course, the University of Queensland for the Master of Laws course and served as an Adjunct Professor of the University of Queensland. He is the co-editor of the Oxford University Press Journal Trusts & Trustees.
He was the Inaugural Chairman of the STEP International Client Special Interest Group, was Deputy Chair and a director of STEP and a member of its World Wide Council and various Committees, and is a co-chair of the United Arab Emirates Chapter of the International Section of the New York State Bar Association, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Section, an Academician of The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, a Member of the Middle East and North Africa Branch Committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK), a member of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers, a Freeman of the City of London and an Honorary Member of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong. In 2016 he chaired the DIFC’s Wealth Management Review Working Group.
David is listed in the Taxation Category in the Australian Financial Review/Best Lawyers review of the Australian Legal Profession in 2008 and all later years and in 2014 was the Tax Institute’s Chartered Tax Adviser of the Year. In 2010 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon) for his services to Australia-Japan relations. In 2012 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for, among other things, “service … to taxation law and legal education.” Since 2016, he has been recognised by Legal Week and The American Lawyer as part of the Private Client Global Elite.
Outside the law, he maintains his interest in his family’s rural business, Russell Pastoral Company, and its flagship property, Jimbour.
Select
