Speakers

​Jeremy is an international corporate lawyer of over 25 years’ standing. He specialises in public and private mergers, acquisitions and divestments; public and private fund formation and asset management; PE/VC/buyouts; ECM and DCM; joint ventures; oil and gas projects (upstream and downstream); other greenfield and brownfield projects; and corporate and commercial law. He is Head of Corporate at SASLO and his practice has focussed on the Middle East since 2011.
Jeremy graduated with first class honours from Cambridge University in 1994 and is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. He joined SASLO in 2019 from a private equity law firm, where he was a partner. Jeremy has also worked in senior positions for UK magic and silver circle law firms out of Dubai, London, and Beijing and for a leading US law firm out of Singapore. He is recognised in the major legal directories and regularly contributes to legal journals and other publications in the region.

Malcolm Dickinson is SASLO’s first Chief Executive Officer. He is a successful law firm leader with particular expertise in strategy. He has a law degree from Cambridge University and trained as a solicitor in the City of London. He then spent several years as legal counsel in a global corporation before joining the UK Law firm Michelmores in 1989. As head of its corporate department, he advised on all forms of corporate finance work and a broad range of other corporate and commercial advice. Malcolm became the first Managing Partner at Michelmores in 2008 and stood down after 10 years in 2018. Under his leadership the turnover of the firm grew from £11 million to £40 million. He also has extensive experience of operating in China and advised on the creation of the first UK regulated ABS law firm owned by Chinese lawyers called Yangtze Law.

Asad is a leading senior capital markets, banking and finance, natural resources and corporate/commercial lawyer and, in addition to practising law in Oman, is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and in Pakistan, as an Advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan. With over 22 years of experience gained in the Sultanate of Oman, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, Mr. Qayyum leads the multi-award winning boutique law firm, MAQ Legal (Al Maamary, Al Abri & Co.), and has had the privilege of acting for the Government of the Sultanate of Oman, the Oman Investment Authority, Energy Development Oman, Total S.A., Oman Air SAOC, OQ SAOC, OQ Gas Networks SAOG, Abraj Energy Services SAOG, almost all of the banks in Oman and an enviable roster of other clients. Mr. Qayyum is a highly regarded and ranked lawyer in all major publications and has had the distinct privilege of advising on a vast majority of debt capital market issuances in the Sultanate of Oman. Mr. Qayyum also led the Capital Markets Team at MAQ Legal on the successful IPOs of OQ Gas Networks SAOG and Abraj Energy Services SAOG with the distinction of being the only firm that advised on all IPOs in Oman in 2023.

Riyadh is the Chief Executive Officer at Decree. Prior to working at Decree, he worked for over 16 years as a legal advisor in the Ministry of Legal Affairs and later its successor the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs. His areas of subject matter expertise include public international law, technology law, and intellectual property. He holds an LLB from the University of Cardiff, an LLM in IT and Commerce from Southampton University, and a PhD from SOAS, University of London.

Yousuf is the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors at Decree and a Senior Legal Counsel at Asyad. He is an Oman and English-law qualified lawyer with over 10 years of experience working for the government of Oman, in private practice, and in state-owned enterprises in the power, water, and logistics sectors. His areas of subject matter expertise include power projects, water desalination projects, climate change, and corporate governance. He holds an LLB from the University of Hull, an LLM in International Commercial Law from the University of Birmingham, and an MBA from Waseda University in Japan.

Paul qualified as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales in 1983 and was invited to be registered as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Oman in 2019. He first came to live and work in Oman for Fox & Gibbons in 1983. Since then he has more than 39 years experience practicing in Oman. He is the Founder and current Chairman of the Omani British Lawyers’ Association. Paul has also lived and worked in private practice in London, Chicago, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi. His practice is wide-ranging and often cross border. Much of his work is in the fields of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and dispute resolution. He has significant experience of international transactions involving in particular other GCC member states, the UK, the US, EU member states, Turkey and China. Paul’s clients include Ministries and other Government bodies and he has assisted in the development and drafting of new legislation and international agreements between Oman and other countries. His clients also include multi-national companies, private equity houses, investment and sovereign wealth funds, companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market and many private companies and family-owned trading groups based in Oman, Turkey and the region.

Raya is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins’ International Dispute Resolution and Litigation Department and heads up the team in Oman, where she is involved in high quantum and complex local and international commercial and construction litigation and arbitration. Raya has been ranked by Chambers Global: Dispute Resolution since 2019, where she is described as “highly accomplished with a strong track record in construction and employment litigation. She is also experienced in both English and Arabic language ad hoc arbitrations, as well as appearing before the ICC”. Raya has also been ranked as a “rising star” by Legal 500 since 2020 and has continuously appeared in the Legal 500 Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist – Middle East Region since 2021. Raya has been named as one of the top ten dispute resolution lawyers in Oman by Business Today and is the only female lawyer on this list. Raya has also won the prestigious Legal 500 MENA Award in the Dispute Resolution Rising Star of the Year category in 2024 and received honourable mention at the LexisNexis Women in Law awards in the Employment Lawyer of the Year category in March 2024. Raya has extensive knowledge on procedural aspects of ad hoc arbitrations and settlement of disputes involving court proceedings and mediation. Raya also has experience in ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL arbitrations seated in Oman. Raya was also an advocate before the Omani courts for 6 years. During that time, Raya gained extensive insight into local court proceedings. Raya specialises in commercial litigation, tax litigation, contentious construction and employment. Raya has both English and Arabic drafting capabilities.