Global firm appoints Islamic finance head
Herbert Smith Freehills has appointed a global head of its Islamic finance practice.
Nasser Al-Hamdan is managing partner of the firm’s Saudi practice in Riyadh and is a corporate lawyer who specialises in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and investment funds, as well as foreign direct investment into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The firm has plans to expand its Islamic finance practice and will be opening in Kuala Lumpur in May.
Herbert Smith Freehills was awarded "Best Law Firm in Banking" at the Islamic Finance News Law Firm Awards ceremony held in Dubai this week.
Ashurst expands Australian M&A capabilities
Nigel Deed has joined Ashurst in Sydney as a partner in its M&A team.
The former Norton Rose Fulbright lawyer has 13 years’ experience working for corporate clients and has cross-border experience having previously worked in London.
Deed’s addition to the firm’s Australian M&A team following the appointment of Melbourne-based partners John Brewster and Shane Kyriakou in early February 2017.
Morgan Lewis hires team from Simmons & Simmons in China
Morgan Lewis is expanding its capabilities in China with the hire of a team of five from Simmons & Simmons.
Partner K. Lesli Ligorner’s practice focuses on employment and corporate investigations and has worked in China for more than a decade representing US and multinational companies doing business in China and the wider region.
She will be joined by a team of four lawyers, including one of counsel.
Court rules that regular church attendance does not secure grave
A medieval court established by William the Conqueror to rule on matters relating to church property has sided with a top barrister over the right to be buried in a local graveyard.
The Consistory Court of the Church of England has ruled that an application by John Jones QC and his wife Heather to reserve plots in St Wilfrid’s in the Lancashire village of Standish, is valid despite objections from villagers.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the objection was that the couple live 5 miles away in another village and that, although they were married in St Wilfrid’s and have attended for other occasions, they were not regular parishioners.
Villagers also questioned whether reserving plots was even allowed.
The court ruled that there was no policy against reservations and the court’s judge John Bullimore said that regular attendance gave "no extra Brownie points" when reserving a grave.
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