"I was attracted to the firm because of its fantastic reputation in both regional and global circles in banking and finance matters including its award-winning global Islamic finance practice."
Back to profilesI joined the firm in 2017 and had previously worked in the Dubai and Muscat offices of another international law firm having gained solid training and early qualification years experience in the UK by working in general banking and finance, real estate investment and development finance, acquisition finance and restructurings.
I was attracted to the firm because of its fantastic reputation in both regional and global circles in banking and finance matters, including its award-winning global Islamic finance practice. In addition, the firm has its global Islamic finance practice centred in Dubai, so at any one time the team here can be working on transactions in the UAE, the wider GCC, Africa, the Far East or Europe. The international footprint of the firm, whilst retaining the ability to work seamlessly across a number of offices, was also a huge factor in deciding to join the firm.
The quality of the clients that we deal with on a day-to-day basis keeps every day at the firm interesting. Clients across the globe provide a number of high-quality instructions, and are asking us to the push the boundaries and become even more innovative in the legal solutions we provide. Coupled with the breadth of products and the cutting-edge transactions that we work on makes every day interesting and no two days are the same.
The first thing that struck me about the firm was the people I met at Clifford Chance and how friendly and welcoming they were. Not only are you dealing with fantastic lawyers, you are also working day in, day out with an approachable team at all levels of the firm. It makes the working day so much more fun.
My most rewarding experience so far has certainly been that of presenting to a large global client at its headquarters in Paris on Islamic project finance matters within a short time of joining the firm.
This emphasised the trust the firm and the partners had in me to present to the client, and was all the more rewarding because of the (unexpectedly) large number of attendees and the engaging discussions and questions raised by the client.
