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Speakers' Biographies
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Laurence Black joined Standard Bank based in Dubai in April 2006 as Director - Head of Private Client Offshore Services, to assist clients based in the Gulf with their international banking and investment needs.
Laurence has over 20 years experience in the offshore finance industry, with particular skills and experience in the establishment of offshore trusts and company formation. Previously Laurence worked within the Royal Bank of Canada Financial Group both in the Channel Islands and the Middle East. Prior to this he worked in Guernsey with Schroders Financial Management. Having started his career in Fund Administration and Accounting, Laurence has held a number of positions in Business Development, Compliance and Marketing. Laurence is the Founder and current Chairman of STEP Arabia (Society Trust & Estate Practitioners). |
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Charles A. Cain is an economist and banker. Manx born and raised, he was educated in England. After Military Service in Scotland and overseas, he obtained his B.A. in Economics at Cambridge University, England (where he was also a Choral Volunteer in King’s College Chapel Choir).
He became an international banker, working in England and East Africa for 11 years before returning to the Isle of Man in 1972 as CEO of a Merchant Bank.
From 1975 to 1989, Mr. Cain ran his own trust company. Following a serious illness, that business was sold. In 1991, he founded and is currently Chairman of Skyefid Limited, providing consultancy services for offshore fiduciary work, with particular emphasis on complex structures, primarily for US tax planning. Skyefid also has substantial business in South Africa, and in northern Europe. It also provides registrar services.
Mr. Cain is a Visiting Professor at the Isle of Man International Business School, and an Adjunct Professor at St Thomas’ University Law School, Miami, Florida, Editor-in-Chief of Offshore Investment magazine, and a frequent speaker and writer on international fiduciary and fiscal matters.
Mr. Cain was active in Isle of Man politics for 25 years, serving in the House of Keys from 1981 to 1986. His other interests include mediaeval and renaissance music, ocean sailing, and the Manx Gaelic language and culture. |
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Andrew De La Rosa is a practicing English barrister and has held dual English/US legal qualifications since 1981. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and former Inner Temple Scholar and two-term elected member of the English Bar Council, he practices from London and the law offices of Morris & De La Rosa in Chicago. He has a connection with Middle Eastern affairs dating back to his and his Chicago law partner’s undergraduate days.
Andrew has a recognised depth of experience in commercial chancery and the traditional equity jurisdiction, and one which extends across several national legal systems. The Chambers & Partners Guide to the UK Legal Profession has described him as “a great advocate and terrific strategist.” The 2007 edition notes that with a wide international element to his practice professional clients say he is “a great tactician [who] always looks at the bigger picture” and “no-nonsense.”
His practice has a large international element and includes trusts, estates, companies, partnership and other fiduciary relationships, and in particular domestic and offshore trust, estate and probate disputes and English, US and foreign tax and business law. He has acted in cases concerning the laws of all of the major British Commonwealth jurisdictions, the Shari’a law of succession and trusts and other forced heirship systems. In conjunction with his practice Andrew has also acted as a consultant and written and spoken on a variety of subjects relating to fiduciaries and the offshore financial industry. Most recently these have included the application of the European Union Savings Directive in offshore financial centres, the expansion of the offshore world beyond the traditional tax havens and the powers and duties of trustees and personal representatives.
Andrew has appeared in a substantial number of English reported cases in his fields of practice including all three of the English Al-Bassam decisions as well as the parallel Saudi Arabian proceedings and a range of succession, trust, partnership and company law decisions including Kane v Radley-Kane (the self-dealing rule), Mullins v Laughton (repudiation of partnership agreements) Re Segelman (rectification of wills), and Ghafoor v Cliff (revocation of ad colligenda bona grants). A list of his reported cases is at www.tenoldsquare.com. |
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Mohammed J. Kamal: Mohammed is a British National. He is a qualified Solicitor and member of the Law Society of England and Wales. He graduated with an Honours Law Degree in 1998 and commenced work with one of the largest commercial law firms in Manchester, UK in 1999 before qualifying as a Solicitor in 2002. He was a partner in a specialist property practice in the UK before joining Al Tamimi & Co Dubai office in 2004.
Mohammed has been handling real estate property matters for over 9 years in private practice in both the UK and Dubai. He currently advises major developers, investors, landlords and tenants, governmental bodies and financial institutions on all aspects of real estate property in the UAE. He has particular expertise in real estate development and transactions, real estate structuring, property financing and Islamic finance. |
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Joseph A. Morris is a partner in the law firm of Morris & De La Rosa, with offices in Chicago and London. Mr. Morris is resident at the Chicago office. The firm was founded in 1989. He maintains an active practice conducting trials and appeals, particularly in the areas of constitutional, business, labour, and international law. He is a member of the Bars of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Illinois, and of several other courts.
Mr. Morris has represented a number of Muslim clients, both in the United States and elsewhere, in matters involving the intersection of Muslim and Western legal systems and in developing Shari’a - compliant means to accomplish client goals in Western jurisdictions.
Mr. Morris served under President Reagan as Assistant Attorney General of the United States and Director of the Department of Justice Office of Liaison Services, in which capacity he was the Attorney General's top assistant in charge of international affairs and of liaison with state and local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies; the General Counsel of the United States Office of Personnel Management; the Special Counsel to the Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and the Chief of Staff and General Counsel of the United States Information Agency. He has also been an American delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and both a government and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
A frequent lecturer and debater, he has appeared on such national and local television and radio programmes as ABC's "Good Morning, America", NBC's "Nightly News", the syndicated "Entertainment Tonight", CNN's "Day Watch" and "Crossfire", C-SPAN's "Washington Journal", WTTW-TV's "Chicago Tonight", and WGN-Radio's "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg". He was formerly co-host of "Equal Time", a public affairs show broadcast weekday evenings on WBEZ-Radio, the National Public Radio affiliate in Chicago. He has spoken and published widely on business, legal, economic, public policy, and foreign relations matters.
Mr. Morris serves pro bono publico as the President and General Counsel of the Lincoln Legal Foundation and is active in a number of other bar, civic, and charitable organizations.
Born on October 24, 1951, in Gary Indiana, Mr. Morris is an alumnus of the College and the Law School of The University of Chicago. He is married to Kathleen Morris and resides in Chicago, Illinois. |
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Peter J. O’Dwyer is a business and financial consultant, with a number of interests. He specialises in providing bespoke advice to cross-frontier businesses, in particular to those involved in international investment funds, holding company structures and structured finance. He is Managing Director and proprietor of Hainault Capital Limited, based in Ireland and a director of Fidco Fiduciary Services Ireland Limited. He also holds a number of non-executive directorships in investment companies, mutual funds, property and hedge funds domiciled in Ireland and the Cayman Islands for amongst others, HBOS, Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas/Fauchier Partners.
He is a director of Bramdean Fund Management, the multi-manager fund company and Chairman of the Audit Committee of PI Investment Management, the international investment management arm of Perpetual Trustees of Australia.
Until 2004, he was responsible for the international investment banking, treasury, administration and mutual funds businesses of the South African owned Gensec Group in Europe, which had a balance sheet value of USD3.5 billion.
Prior to joining Gensec, Peter was a director in the financial services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin and before that a founding executive director of KPMG Financial Services. He has significant international financial services experience and has worked in the areas of cross-frontier structuring, taxation and corporate finance in Ireland, Germany and the City of London. Peter has also advised regulatory authorities and governments in a number of offshore jurisdictions.
He is a graduate in Economics and Business Studies at Trinity College Dublin, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and a member of the Institute of Directors. Peter is a frequent speaker and lecturer at international conferences and workshops in Europe and North America and has written widely on international structuring for financial services groups, multi national corporations and mutual fund complexes.
He is married with one child aged ten. |
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David Russell QC: David was admitted a solicitor in Queensland in 1974, and was called to the Bar in 1977. He is admitted to practise in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the Courts of the Dubai International Finance Centre. He was first appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986 and holds that office in all these Australian jurisdictions.
He currently practices in 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.
He was president of the Taxation Institute of Australia (“TIA”) from 1993 to 1995, and of the Asia Oceania Tax Consultants’ Association (“AOTCA”) from 1996 to 2000. He has been appointed an AOTCA Honorary Adviser for life, and an Honorary Member of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong. David served as Chairman of the TIA National Education (1991-3) and International Relations (1995-2001) Committees, and is a member of its National Technical Committee. He served as a member of the Ministerial Consultative Committee for the Tax Law Improvement Project from 1994 to 1997 and as a member of the Steering Committee for the National Review of Standards for the Tax Profession in 1993 and 1994. From 1991 to 1995 he was a member of the National Tax Liaison Group.
David has lectured and written extensively on taxation related topics in Australia and overseas and is a member of the Advisory Editorial Board of Australian Tax Practice. He also lectures at the University of Queensland for the Master of Laws course, is an Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law of the University of Queensland. He is a co-chair of the Australian Chapter of the International Law and Practice Section of the New York State Bar Association, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Section.
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Sandy Shipton: Sandy, a founding member of the Dubai International Financial Centre, is responsible for developing the asset management and funds industry within the DIFC. This includes leading specialist projects to increase the scope of fund management in the Middle East, such as the Regional Family Office initiative.
Sandy was previously Head of Generational Planning for Middle East & Europe at Merrill Lynch, where he worked from 1989 until March 2003. As a founding member of this division, he was responsible for dealing with asset protection and estate planning for high net worth individuals and for assisting families with wealth transition.
Prior to working at Merrill Lynch, Sandy spent 12 years with the Nat West Group, initially as a trust officer and subsequently as a marketing professional. He has a total of 30 years banking and legal experience gained within onshore and offshore financial centres, and is recognised as a leading figure within the international private banking and wealth management industry. |
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Paul Stibbard is the Head of the Private Client Tax Department of Baker & McKenzie’s London office, having joined the firm in 1988.
Paul advises individuals and trustees extensively on complex cross border trust and tax related issues. His particular expertise includes advising trust companies on issues concerning the validity of existing offshore trust structures with specific reference to the possible rights of forced heirs from civil law and Shari’a law jurisdictions. He also advises on legal and tax issues relating to the succession of substantial family owned businesses and the creation of complex offshore structures for wealth preservation to achieve that end.
Paul is the author of a chapter on Offshore Financial Centres in the current edition of Tolley’s Tax Havens. He is also the author of the chapter on Succession Planning in the UK in the Credit Suisse Guide to Managing Your Wealth. He is the editor of the international edition of the Baker & McKenzie Private Banking Newsletter. He speaks frequently at external conferences and contributes to a number of professional journals. He has been quoted last year in both the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal (Europe) on matters of topical interest.
He is a member of the IFSL Wealth Management Working Party. He is an Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He has also participated in a series of interviews for Xalt.tv on trust, tax and Shari'a law related issues. He is also a member of the International Committee of STEP.
Paul and his group were short listed by Legal Business Awards as Private Client Solicitors of the Year in 2004 and 2005 and 2007. Paul was also short listed by In-Brief Magazine in 2004 and 2005 as Private Client Solicitor of the Year. Paul is listed as one of the top six leading individuals in London in Trusts and Personal Tax in Chambers UK, Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession 2007. He is referred to in CityWealth Top 100 Advisors 2006 as a "magic circle lawyer at the top of his field". He is also listed as one of the top five International Private Client lawyers in Chambers Global Legal Directory 2007.
Paul graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Natural Science and Law with Honours and from INSEAD Business School in France with an MBA (Deans List).
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Shân Warnock-Smith Q.C. is an adviser and a litigator in the whole range of trust and estates matters. She is ranked in the top bracket of leading Silks in private client work and charities and practises extensively both in England and in the other trust jurisdictions. She has a particular interest in wealth structuring for international families from both the advisory and litigation standpoints.
Shân is at the forefront of developments in the private client field. In England she appeared in Re Yorke, the test case on estates of Lloyd’s Names (and is the author of the subsequent Practice Direction permitting paper applications to the court in such cases) and in Midland Bank v Wyatt, the first English case on sham trusts. In the Cayman Islands she recently appeared in A v Rothschilds which established the availability of the Hastings-Bass jurisdiction there and in cases concerning the nature of the power to appoint a protector and the validity of a “no contest” provision in a trust. She has also appeared in numerous important and sensitive unreported cases dealing with variations of trust, construction questions, rectification proceedings and applications for directions by trustees, particularly those concerning the sale of underlying family companies.
She sits on the editorial board of the STEP-sponsored Wills and Trusts Law Reports and is a regular speaker at professional conferences both in England and abroad, including the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Shân is also an accredited mediator and is a specialist in the mediation of trust and probate disputes.
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