The six leading lawyers advising major clients in Libya are: Mohamed Tumi, Bernd Ratzke, Mahmoud Mukthar, Salah Marghani, Ibrahim Legwell and Cyril Vock.
Mohamed Tumi
Position: Managing director, Tumi Law Firm
Biography: Mohamed Tumi is the managing director of Tumi Law Firm, Libya’s largest legal practice. Tumi is a graduate of the schools of law at the universities of Cairo in Egypt and Damascus in Syria. He also read law at the University of Miami in Florida, US, from where he graduated with a masters degree in comparative law. From Florida, he went on to the law centre at George Washington University in Washington DC, graduating with an LLM degree. Tumi also holds a doctorate in law from the University of Illinois in Chicago, US. Aside from his academic achievements, Tumi has 27 years’ experience working as a lawyer. He has held the position of senior legal consultant to Italy’s Agip Oil Company for the past five years and has been a member of the American Society of Inter-national Law since January 1983. He is also a member of the Arab Society of Intel-lectual Property.
Contact Tel: (+218) 213 332 144
Bernd Ratzke
Position: Partner, Dawsons Solicitors
Biography: Bernd Ratzke joined Dawsons Solicitors as a partner and joint head of the firm’s corporate commercial department in May 2009 from US law firm Baker & McKenzie, where he was a partner. Ratzke specialises in cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures for listed and unlisted corporates. He has acted extensively for management teams and entrepreneurs on private equity transactions. Ratzke has developed a specialist practice around the modernisation of the Libyan banking system, having been the lead legal adviser to the Central Bank of Libya on its privatisation programme. In 2008, Ratzke led the team advising the central bank on the sale by the Social Economic Development Fund of a 19 per cent stake in the state-owned Wahda Bank to Arab Bank of Jordan for e210m ($295m). He also advised on the privatisation of Libya’s Sahara Bank in 2007.
Contact Tel: (+44) 207 4214 764
Mahmoud Mukthar
Position: Partner, Mukthar, Kelbash & Elgharabli Attorneys
Biography: Mahmoud Mukthar is a partner at Mukhtar, Kelbash & Elgharabli Attorneys, which specialises in advising foreign com-panies on investing in Libya’s oil and gas sector. The firm also advised on projects in Libya’s construction sector in 2007 and 2008, as well as advising international banks on the sale of financial products. Mukhtar has authored the Libya section of the American Bar Association’s Year in Review 2007 report, which summarises legal and administrative changes worldwide. He has also contributed to Libya: A Guide To Commercial Law, Banking Law & Accounting, published in 2008, detailing the legal framework in Libya. Mukhtar’s practice advises foreign clients doing business in Libya, and the firm is regularly instructed by leading US and UK law firms who want to refer clients on to local lawyers.
Contact Tel: (+218) 213 332 665
Salah Marghani
Position: Partner, MTL Law Office
Biography: Salah Marghani is a founding partner of MTL Law Office and has been practising law for more than 30 years. He is a commercial lawyer practising company and contract law, contract drafting and negotiation, transport law, banking law and petroleum and foreign investment laws. The firm advises foreign oil companies, banks and other international financial institutions, as well as contractors and large corporates operating in or wanting to invest in Libya. Marghani can represent clients in front of Libya’s Supreme Court and holds a law degree from the Faculty of Law at Libya’s Benghazi University, having graduated in 1972. He also holds a Master of Philosophy degree from the UK’s Council for National Academic Awards, awarded in 1979. His firm carried out due diligence on the -privatisation of Wahda Bank, which at the start of 2008 sold a 19 per cent stake to Jordan’s Arab Bank.
Contact Tel: (+218) 214 782 133
Ibrahim Legwell
Position: Partner, Legwell, Ali & Partners
Biography: Ibrahim Legwell was born in Tripoli in 1935 and obtained his undergraduate degree in economics and his doctorate in law from Cairo University. After completing his law and postgraduate degrees at Cairo University, Legwell began his career in 1958 as head of the legal department for the UK’s Shell Corporation in Libya. He established his own legal practice, Legwell Law Firm, in 1960. Legwell served on the board of the national oil company of Libya and as an adviser to the Central Bank of Libya in the 1970s. From 1991 to 1998, he served as head of the defence team for the Lockerbie trial for the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988, and was instrumental in setting up an international tribunal to try the suspects in the Netherlands. In September 2004, Legwell helped set up the partnership between his firm and Kuwaiti law firm Ali & Partners, which formed Legwell, Ali & Partners.
Contact Tel: (+218) 213 336 578
Cyril Vock
Position: Senior solicitor, Denton Wilde Sapte
Biography: Cyril Vock is a senior energy lawyer at UK law firm Denton Wilde Sapte and has been based in the firm’s Paris office since 2005, having joined the firm in June 1998. He is a member of the energy and infrastructure department. Vock was instrumental in expanding the firm’s presence in North Africa, having set up an affiliation with Algerian law firm Cabinet Hadj-Hamou & Djouadi in November 2007. At the time the Algeria agreement was made, Vock said the firm was aiming to expand its network into Libya and Tunisia. Recent projects by Denton Wilde Sapte’s Paris office in Libya include advising a major European water utility in a joint venture with a Libyan party. Vock specialises in international oil and gas and mining projects. His experience includes advising on production-sharing agreements, unitisation agreements, gas sales and transportation and acquisition of oil and gas assets.
Contact Tel: (+33) 153 051 600
Next week - Saudi Arabia/brokers
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