Certificate in DIFC Courts Procedures [6th-8th August 2018]

August 6, 2018 | Monday

9.00-10.00- Evidence

Speaker:

Bushra Ahmed

Barrister/ Partner/ Head of Dispute Resolution, KBH Kaanuun

Bushra Ahmed is a Partner in the law firm and a practicing barrister of more than 16 years standing.  She is a litigation specialist focusing on commercial litigation and international arbitration across the full range of commercial, corporate, employment, financial services law and regulatory matters.  She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2001 and did her pupillage and became a tenant at Ely Place Chambers, London, Chambers of William McCormick QC.  She is currently a door tenant there.  

Bushra joined KBH in January 2013 and within a year of joining, she was made Head of Dispute Resolution overseeing and supervising the team. She has extensive experience of working in the United Kingdom and the Middle East and has advised, represented and acted in important employment cases in the United Kingdom as well as landmark cases in the DIFC, often setting precedents.  She has a reputable client led practice, which includes public and private entities across a broad spectrum of regulated commercial activity, focusing on cross border business issues and international dispute resolution, representing clients in arbitration centres including London, Paris, Dubai and Bahrain.

10.00-11.00- Cost

Speakers:

Deirdre Walker

Head of Middle East, Norton Rose Fulbright

Deirdre Walker is a dispute resolution lawyer based in Dubai where she is Head of Middle East.

Deirdre has experience in all forms of dispute resolution including litigation, mediation and arbitration as well as general commercial dispute resolution with a particular specialism in commercial fraud and interlocutory applications. She has extensive experience of urgent applications for freezing injunctions and ancillary relief and in the recovery of assets.

Deirdre was called to the Bar in 1986 and following a period of 18 months at the Department of Trade & Industry she joined the corporate department of the London practice in 1989. In 1991 she transferred to the dispute resolution department and in 1997 she became a partner.

Deirdre is recommended in The Legal 500 for her expertise in fraud matters and in Chambers & Partners as a leading litigator; she is also an accredited CEDR Mediator.

Peter Wood

Of Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright

Peter Wood is a dispute resolution lawyer based in Dubai. He has a broad range of experience on multi-jurisdictional litigation, dispute resolution and general corporate matters for clients conducting business across a range of sectors including financial services, insurance and reinsurance, product liability, construction, real estate, hospitality and pharmaceuticals.

Peter has represented clients in the County and Supreme Courts of Victoria, the Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre and in institutional and ad-hoc domestic and international arbitrations.

Peter has degrees in law, music and philosophy from the University of Melbourne and Monash University and is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the High Court of Australia and the High Court of New Zealand.  Peter is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been recognised in the Legal 500 as a "name of note".

11.00-12.00- Disputing Jurisdiction

Speaker:

Sheila Shadmand

Partner, Jones Day

Sheila Shadmand is the Partner-in-Charge of Jones Day Dubai and leads the Firm's Global Disputes and International Investigations practices in the Middle East. 

Sheila has served as counsel or arbitrator in numerous high-value ICC, LCIA, and DIAC arbitrations and as an advocate in the DIFC Courts where she is admitted with full rights of audience.  She was lead counsel in International Electro-Mechanical v. Al Fattan, which set the often-cited pro-arbitration foundational precedent in the DIFC Courts.

Sheila is recognized as a leading disputes and investigations lawyer for several years running in Chambers, The Legal 500, and The Best Lawyers in the UAE. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and a number of other news-related broadcasts and print media in connection with her work. Sheila has served as a member of the DIFC Courts Users Committee and serves on the Rules Subcommittee. 

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August 7, 2018 | Tuesday

9.00-10.00- Commencing a Claim

Speaker:

Jess McGuirk

Associate, Clyde & Co

Jess handles a wide range of commercial disputes, including in the DIFC Courts, local UAE courts and arbitration (including under the DIFC-LCIA, ICC, SCC and UNCITRAL rules). Jess has a particular focus on trade credit insurance disputes and international arbitrations in the defence, security and logistics sectors.

Jess is admitted to practice before the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of New South Wales and is a registered practitioner before the DIFC Courts.

Prior to joining Clyde & Co, Jess was a member of the Australian diplomatic service. Jess has also worked as a lawyer in Sydney with Australia’s leading transport law practice and in Dubai as in-house counsel for a global logistics company.

Muhammad Mahmood

Associate, Clyde & Co

Muhammad has a broad disputes practice, ranging from shareholders' disputes to technology and telecommunications disputes. He has worked on some of the DIFC Courts' landmark cases, including DNB Bank ASA v Gulf Eyadah Corporation and Other (CA-007-2015) and the DIFC Courts' first IT hacking case.  He has a particular specialism in conflict of laws, regularly advising on complex issues of jurisdiction and enforcement. 

After starting his career at Clifford Chance in London, Muhammad joined the DIFC Courts litigation team at Al Tamimi & Company. His current practice at Clyde & Co is comprised primarily of commercial proceedings in the DIFC Courts and arbitration. 

10.00-11.00- Case Management

Speaker:

Adrian Chadwick

Partner, Hadef & Partners

Adrian is a commercial dispute resolution specialist. He has substantial experience handling a wide range of general commercial disputes through litigation, arbitration, or alternative dispute resolution (ADR). 

He regularly represents his clients as Counsel in arbitrations governed by various institutional rules including DIAC, DIFC-LCIA, ICC, and LMAA. He has also been appointed as a Sole Arbitrator by DIAC for several arbitration matters. He is a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA).

Adrian is registered as a Legal Practitioner of the DIFC Courts with full rights of advocacy and has appeared many times as an Advocate before these Courts and before the Special Tribunal relating to Dubai World and its Subsidiaries. He is a member of the DIFC Courts’ Users’ Committee and its Rules Sub-Committee. He is also a lecturer for the DIFC Academy of Law. He handled the leading case heard by the DIFC Court on forum non conveniens.

11.00-12.00- Interim Remedies

Speaker:

Philip Punwar

Partner, Baker Botts

Philip Punwar is a practising barrister and a partner in the international arbitration and dispute resolution group of Baker Botts L.L.P.

Punwar is an experienced civil and common law practitioner. Over the past 25 years he has appeared in a wide range of commercial proceedings in court and arbitration under English, UAE, DIFC and International law. He has recently acted in arbitration proceedings arising out of aircraft charter agreements, agreements for the provision of armed security and logistics in areas of conflict, sub-development agreements, construction agreements, operating agreements, distribution agreements, production sharing agreements and diverse joint venture agreements. Punwar has also advised clients seeking to pursue investment treaty claims. He is an active arbitrator and mediator.

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August 8, 2018 | Wednesday

9.00-9.45- Preparation for Trial

Speaker: 

David Parker

Of Counsel- Commercial Disputes & International Arbitration, BCLP Law

David is based in Dubai and his practice is in commercial disputes and international arbitration.

David acts for companies in a wide variety of business sectors in international arbitrations (and other forums) including insurers/reinsurers, finance and banking, international trade, transport/shipping, construction and energy.

David previously worked in London for over 10 years and has spent over a year on secondment at a Lloyd’s Syndicate in London dealing with legal issues arising across the syndicate’s business (in multiple jurisdictions).

He represents claimants and respondents involved in disputes on a broad range of issues, such as: cross-jurisdictional shareholder disputes, trading and banking frauds/breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent schemes and energy/construction disputes.

 

9.45-10.30- Early Disposal of Claims

Speaker: 

Sharon Lakhan

Head of DIFC Litigation Team, Global Advocates

Sharon Lakhan is an Australian qualified lawyer with extensive legal experience in Dubai and a special interest in the Dubai International Financial Centre. 

She specializes in advising clients on a wide array of legal issues, including employment matters, corporate and commercial advisory, and especially dispute resolution pertaining to financial miss-selling, property disputes, insolvency, expat wills, Small Claims Tribunal cases and costs assessment.

Sharon is the Head of the DIFC Department at Global Advocacy, and is registered in Part II of the DIFC Courts' Register of Practitioners. Throughout her practice in the DIFC, Sharon has been involved in a number of ground-breaking cases before the Courts, including a number of significant decisions on jurisdiction, insolvency and financial miss-selling.

10.30-11:30- Enforcement

Speaker: 

Alessandro Tricoli

Partner, Fichte & Co

Alessandro joined Fichte & Co in 2006 and specializes in ship finance, ship sale & purchase, construction and conversion.  He regularly acts for owners, yards and banks in contentious and non-contentious matters relating to ship building, ship finance, and ship sale and purchase contracts. 

Alessandro’s broad knowledge encompasses many areas of the firm’s contentious work, with a particular emphasis on disputes resolution. He was leading the team that obtained the first recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award under the New York Convention by the Fujairah Courts and was the instructing lawyer in both Fiske Firmin v Firuzeh and Gulf Eyadah, the two representative cases in the DIFC Courts for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and judgments. He regularly deals with foreign counsel and drafts counter expert reports for the UAE and foreign Courts. 

Before joining Fichte & Co, Alessandro practiced in Italy with a top-tier insurance law firm. He then moved to the UK to read postgraduate maritime law at the University of Southampton and gained international work experience in London. He has been consistently named in the Legal 500 EMEA (Shipping) since 2011. 

11.30-12:15- Appeals

Speaker: 

Graham Lovett

Partner, Gibson Dunn

Graham joined Gibson Dunn in January 2016 from Clifford Chance to head up the regional disputes practice.  He specialises in complex commercial arbitration and litigation, often with a cross-border element.  He is ranked in the top tier in Chambers Global 2017 for Dispute Resolution (Middle East and UAE) and Corporate Investigations.

Graham is the Chairman of the DIFC Authority Legislative Committee, a Member of the Steering Committee for the ICC UAE, Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb), former Member of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Arbitration Committee and Member of the Advisory Board of the IBA Arab Regional Forum.  He is co-author of the UAE chapter of the Encyclopaedia of International Commercial Litigation (Kluwer), co-editor of Summaries of UAE Courts’ Decisions on Arbitration (ICC) and co-author of the DIFC Courts’ Code of Best Legal Professional Practice. Graham regularly appears as an advocate before the DIFC Courts and the Special Tribunal Related to Dubai World and sits as an arbitrator in both domestic and international arbitrations. 

 

For further information or to request for an assistance, please contact [email protected] or call 04-4273390 

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