Mayer Brown has added Janelene Chen as a partner the firm’s Banking & Finance practice in Singapore, where she will focus on trade and other structured finance transactions. She joins from Norton Rose Fulbright, where she was a partner. Chen has extensive experience advising financial institutions and corporate borrowers on a wide range of cross-border financings, notably trade finance (including receivables finance, payables finance and commodities finance), event-driven financing, structured lending (such as asset-based lending), and general banking.  Most of her cross-border transactions have involved Singapore, Indonesia, Indochina, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Chen is dual qualified in English and Singapore law, giving the firm the flexibility to assist clients in the Southeast Asia region, where transactions are governed by either English or Singapore...

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has added KZ Kuriyan as a partner in its General Corporate Practice. He specialises in M&A transactions, private equity investments and exits, joint ventures and general corporate commercial matters. He will be based in the Bengaluru office. Kuriyan assists private equity funds, as well as Indian and international corporates, on complex cross-border transactions in the unlisted space, including private M&A, private equity investments and exits, and joint ventures. He has significant industry knowledge across a range of industries, particularly in the real estate, logistics and IT/ITES sectors, and acts as counsel for several Indian and international corporate and investment funds on matters relating to transaction structuring, entry and exit strategies, foreign direct investments, overseas direct investments, and general corporate commercial work. Kuriyan graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in...

Allen & Overy has welcomed back Haris Meyer Hanif with effect from January 1, 2024. Hanif rejoins from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he was Head of Finance in MENA for over 11 years. Prior to that, he spent two years at Allen & Overy in Dubai, as well as having held roles in London. He is recognised as a market-leading lawyer in his field, specialised in complex restructuring and insolvency matters, leveraged and acquisition financings and private capital transactions across the Middle East and Africa. He has acted on some of the most innovative restructuring and financings in the region and, alongside Dubai partner Adam Banks, will establish a senior bench of restructuring and capital solutions specialists covering UAE, KSA and the wider Middle East...

K&L Gates Straits Law, the Singapore office of global law firm K&L Gates, has added Samuel Kolehmainen and Duc Nguyen as partners in the Finance practice. Kolehmainen and Nguyen join the firm’s Singapore office from Herbert Smith Freehills, where they advised on a wide range of complex cross-border financing transactions, with a particular focus on aviation finance. Kolehmainen is admitted as a solicitor in Finland and England & Wales. He has substantial finance experience, regularly advising financial institutions and borrowers on aviation finance transactions. He also acts for clients on ECA financings, operating leasing and aircraft trading, leveraging the deep industry knowledge he gained while working with an operating lessor in Dublin for two years. Nguyen is admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and Vietnam. He regularly advises clients, which include world-leading aircraft lessors, international banks and airlines, on portfolio sale, JOLCO, JOL, PDP financing, portfolio financing and structured finance matters. Having previously worked for more than ten years with a leading aviation finance firm in London, Bangkok and Singapore, Nguyen is able to capitalize on the multijurisdictional insights he gained on behalf of clients when negotiating and structuring complex...

Al Tamimi & Company has added Richard Bell as a partner in its Dispute Resolution practice, increasing the partner count at the Middle East and North Africa’s leading law firm to 98, across its 17 offices in ten countries. Joining the region’s preeminent Dispute Resolution practice, Bell brings with him over 25 years of experience in the MENA and Asia Pacific regions. He has advised clients in domestic and international arbitrations across the Middle East, and has significant knowledge of local law in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Bell has led disputes arising out of foreign direct investment into the UAE and Saudi Arabia, oil & gas downstream services contracts, property development and infrastructure disputes, and company law and...