Jersey Finance and Trowers & Hamlins: Family Businesses and the Evolution of the Family Office

Faizal is a UK qualified lawyer and for many years has worked and advised, and is a trusted advisor to institutions, corporates and families across the Middle East, Africa and India. Faizal specialises in banking and finance and has advised corporates, family offices and families including on their international investment and holding structures.

Brian is the resident managing partner in Trowers & Hamlins' Bahrain office and heads its corporate team in Bahrain as well its international funds practice. He has 20 years' experience working with clients from or investing in the GCC. He advises clients in respect of public and private company mergers and acquisitions, corporate structuring and regulation (including corporate finance, company and group structuring, shareholders' and joint venture arrangements, constitutional documents and corporate governance) in addition to a broad range of commercial and contractual matters.

Brian also advises a number of banks, private equity clients and sovereign wealth institutions in respect of Bahraini and offshore fund establishment in addition to international private equity investments and disposals. In addition, Brian works on development of board and management incentive platforms, employee benefit trusts, board charters and associated policies for several banking institutions.

Alastair advises high net worth individuals and families, family offices and trustees on global estate planning and tax efficient investment structures. He has significant experience in international succession planning including regional and international trust and foundation structures, tax advice, immigration and family governance.

Alastair leads the Private Wealth practice in the Middle East and is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers High Net Worth. He is described as "superb; efficient, very knowledgeable... extremely resourceful… succinct and very client-oriented".

He is also named as an expert for private clients in Who's Who Legal and most recently became the sole winner of the Client Choice 2022 award for Private Client in the UAE, chosen from over 2,500 nominations.

Alia is Director and Head of JTC’s Dubai and Abu Dhabi Office. Alia joined JTC’s Private Client Services division in 2020 as an Associate Director. Prior to joining JTC, Alia spent the previous five and half years of her career at Intertrust Dubai.

Alia is responsible for maintaining and managing client relationships, the management of corporate structures and business development in the GCC region.

Alia was named in Citywealth’s Power Woman Awards in 2021 and 2022 as a Rising Star. She was also successful at the 2022 Wealthbriefing MENA Awards, winning the ‘Wealth Management Rising Star Under 40’ award.

Bashar started his profession as a lawyer in private practice in 2003 and in 2006 he joined a prominent Wealth Management house in the Kingdom of Bahrain as their in-house legal counsel and is now their General Counsel. Bashar has extensive experience acting as trusted advisor to the Group, dealing with high net worth individuals and meeting the Group’s legal and corporate needs both locally and internationally. Bashar’s experience varies from handling M&A projects, Joint Ventures and real estate projects both locally and internationally.

Leevyn is a professional who specializes in helping businesses and high net worth individuals to establish their operations and legal structures in the UAE. With over 20 years of experience, in finance, corporate and fiduciary services, Leevyn has built a reputation for providing transparent and practical solutions, that help clients navigate through the complex business and legal landscape of the UAE.

Leevyn was Head of Fund Administration for a Mauritian-based investment company before moving to UAE to assist with the setting up of the UAE operations in 2011. He has an in-depth understanding of the local business environment and legal structures, and his expertise and extensive network have proven invaluable to his clients.

In addition to his client facing roles, Leevyn acts as subject matter expert on UAE foundations, estate planning and corporate structuring, and has a passion for disruptive technologies.

Bashar is the Managing Director of Crestbridge Bahrain B.S.C (c); he has extensive experience in Trust and Financial services. With over 30 years’ experience in the region, Bashar has a strong track record in developing relationships with financial institutions, UHNW families and institutional investors. He has a wealth of experience, most recently as a private consultant, and previously as the former CEO of Intertrust Bahrain, Director at Credit Suisse, Regional Head Private Banking for Arab Bank Group, and UBS Merrill Lynch before that.

He is responsible for the growth strategy and performance of our Bahrain office in addition to business development activity in the Middle East.

Mubeen, a tax partner with KPMG Bahrain, is an Australian corporate and tax lawyer with over 20 years’ experience advising clients in Australia, Bahrain and across the GCC.

His key areas of tax expertise are tax structuring, international tax, M&A, due diligence, transfer pricing, tax disputes and VAT and corporate tax in the GCC. Mubeen also advises clients on compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Common Reporting Standard (CRS), Economic Substance Rules (ESR), Country by Country (CbC) reporting and other Bahrain commercial and regulatory compliance matters.

He is the lead tax partner on clients across a range of industries including financial services, insurance, private equity, real estate & construction, oil & gas and diversified family business groups. His combined experience as a corporate and tax lawyer allows him to provide commercially-focused, value-adding practical solutions to complex tax issues.

Shadi Alnasr is a member of BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s Global Family Office team. In this role, Shadi works directly with UHNW individuals, families, family offices and foundations across the Middle East region.

Shadi harnesses the broad capabilities of BNY Mellon to deliver tailored wealth and investment solutions to the clientele. Shadi assembles and coordinates teams that develop and implement long-term, practical plans to help families, family offices and foundations achieve their wealth and investment goals. Shadi works directly with families facing the complexities of multi-jurisdictional wealth planning, asset management, philanthropy and intergenerational wealth issues. His primary focus is on empowering family offices via setting the infrastructure for safe keeping the assets, performance and risk reporting reporting, and PE administration.

Trowers is an international law firm with over 170 partners and more than 1000 people located across the UK, Middle East and Asia.

During our long history, we have held fast to the values and characteristics – such as service, quality, integrity and innovation – that have made us not only a leading law firm, but an inclusive and exciting place to work and establish a career. Some 240 years on, these attributes remain solidly embedded in our culture and our ways of working.

We are well known for being experts in the sectors our clients work in and getting to the crux of the issues they face. This gives us the best foundations to extend our thinking beyond the day to day delivery of transactional and advisory legal services and provide our clients with fresh thinking and commercially-driven solutions.