Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 Edition

37 FINANCE MONTHLY Finance Monthly Global Awards 2016 UNITED KINGDOM Contact Details Tahir Ashraf Barrister 5 Chancery Lane Mobile: +44 (0) 7830 72 99 59 National: +44 (0) 3300 88 2005 www.5cl.co.uk ta@5cl.co.uk 5 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1LJ London | London Gatwick | Manchester COMMERCE AND BUSINESS BARRISTER OF THE YEAR About Tahir Ashraf “I am delighted to have won the Commerce and Business Barrister of the Year UK Award of the FINANCE MONTHLY GLOBAL AWARDS 2016. The award recognises my unwavering commitment in helping clients to achieve their commercial objectives.” Recognition - Scholarships and Awards The last decade has seen Ashraf’s achievements recognised through scholarships from Lincoln’s Inn, BPP University and the University of Oxford. The Acquisition International Legal Awards named him the UK Best Commercial Barrister of the Year 2015. The ACQ Global Awards, named him as the Winner of the UK Commercial Barrister of the Year 2016. He has also received the 2016 International Advisory Experts Award. Commercial Specialism Ashraf, instructed to appear in the UK Supreme Court in landmark commercial cases, specialises in working with SME companies, entrepreneurs, owner-managed businesses and energy start- ups. He works with solicitors and industry clients. His banking work includes advice on loan and facility agreements. Particularly involving transport infrastructure, land use projects for facilities such as solar and waste-to-energy power plants. He has worked on some of the most cutting- edge technological-development projects, particularly those harnessing hydrogen as an emission-free future-fuel. World-First Public Private Partnerships As sole legal Counsel Ashraf has been working on two world-first projects of significant global footprint and social impact. The first a transport-emission-monitoring infrastructure programme, during the spring of 2015. A complex multi-party multi-faceted international public private partnership project, part funded by a development bank and supported by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A project requiring a significant balancing of commercial risks against the objectives of the stakeholders. Second, the creation of a world-first ‘Green Bond’ for transport infrastructure, designed specifically to reduce emissions from internal combustion engines, in the automotive, rail and marine sectors. As a result, Ashraf identifies as having a penchant for multi-faceted-multi-party projects, contracts as well as commercial litigation matters. Ashraf makes legal matters less onerous by making his services a ‘de-stress purchase’. Advising on and drafting contracts has become second nature, alongside his commercial litigation work. As a commercial litigator, Ashraf takes a pragmatic yet robust approach to disputes. Whether through alternative dispute resolution or litigation. He advises on banking matters, company, contract and partnerships disputes and shareholder claims. Defamation, professional negligence, insolvency, property and trusts as well as intellectual property matters too, are integral to his work. Ashraf’s corporate finance work includes the provision of commercially sound, strategic corporate finance advice. Where necessary he works with internal / external specialists and advises on mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, insolvency and recovery among other matters. Clients appreciate Ashraf’s commercially-focussed practical law advice built on the foundations of sound commercial judgment. Along with his love for law as his hobby, he attributes his success, to his clients. Expertise •Arbitration & ADR •Civil Fraud •Judical Review •Islamic Finance •Business Law •Company •Insolvency •Property •Banking •Disputes •Intellectual Property •Public Investment Law •Chancery/Commercial •EU Law •Investment Banking •Trusts Winner: Tahir Ashraf