People

Sheikh Bilal Khan MBA

Global Head of Islamic Finance

Sheikh Bilal Khan is a British-born English qualified lawyer, arbitrator/judge, Shariah Scholar and Islamic Finance expert. He is involved in many geo-strategic projects in different parts of the world including the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, Asia including Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

He is currently serving in many other high-profile capacities including as Chief Islamic Finance Officer at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), Panel Member of Arbitrators at the AIFC International Arbitration Centre, Member of the AIFC Advisory Council on Islamic Finance, Secretary-General of the Malta Islamic Finance Association and Partner & Co-Chairman of Dome Advisory.

Sheikh Bilal is additionally a special adviser to numerous presidents and prime ministers’ offices as well as serving on several multi-lateral, government, quasi-government and institutional boards in a special advisory capacity. His business management, strategic leadership and international legal expertise covers a wide range of industries, sectors and services and related corporate governance, laws and regulations.

Sheikh Bilal has recently served on numerous high-profile boards including as Vice Chairman of the Mosaic International Leadership Program of the UK Prince’s Trust, as Senior Adviser to various All Party Parliamentary Groups, as UK Catalyst on the UK Government’s Department for Trade & Investment and as Special Adviser on the Board of the Middle East Association, which was created by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Sheikh Bilal has been recognised and bestowed with international honours and prestigious awards such as Zaki Badawi Shariah Scholar of the Year at the London Sukuk Summit, Takaful Shariah Scholar of the Year at the International Takaful Summit, Religious Advocate of the Year at the British Muslim Awards, Positive Role Model for Race, Religion and Faith at the British National Diversity Awards, recipient of Sharia100 and repeated recipient of Islamica500 as well as being made Freeman of the City of London. He was especially invited to feature in the television series ‘Secrets of Success’ as part of 20 London-based personalities which is now showing on British Airways In-flight.

Sheikh Bilal holds an M.B.A. in Legal Services, M.A. in Islamic Banking, Finance & Management and LL.B (Hons) in Law from various British universities as well as B.A. and M.A. in Arabic, Shariah Law and Islamic Sciences from Islamic universities with proficiency in multiple languages including English, Arabic and Urdu. Sheikh Bilal is known for public speaking at international conferences, lecturing at leading universities and contributing in both the electronic and print media.

What we say about Sheikh Bilal

As well as being a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales after training and qualifying at Linklaters, Sheikh Bilal is also an award-winning Islamic lawyer and Shariah Scholar with a global profile in the Islamic finance industry. This is an extremely rare combination of legal expertise which enables him to draft legal documentation while appreciating the Shariah law foundations and conduct Shariah-compliant structuring while considering the regulatory regime and legal enforceability.

Sheikh Bilal has long-standing corporate, finance and legal experience whereby he is involved in cross border transactions, international advisory work and all forms of dispute resolution including serving as an international arbitrator and mediator presiding over and adjudicating in high profile commercial legal disputes. He serves as one of ten British and 30 international arbitrators which includes senior British judges and Queens Counsel at the AIFC International Arbitration Centre.

Sheikh Bilal has also served as a consultant to the AIFC with the mandate to establish an independent body for regulation of legal services in the region based on the UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) model and to this end, he has successfully established an independent advisory panel comprising of leading figures from the Legal Services Board, the SRA, the Law Society, the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Council. The AIFC has been established as an international and regional financial hub which is based on English common law principles and provides a unique opportunity for regional and international players to tap into the growing CIS and the wider BRI markets.

Highlights

Sheikh Bilal provides full-service legal expertise with extensive experience including product structuring, drafting legal transactional documents, advisory work, submission of expert legal and Shariah opinions and evidence in court litigation as well as conducting alternative forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation in the UK, the Middle East, Central Asia and other jurisdictions involving the interplay of English common law and Islamic Shariah law. His experience includes drafting and reviewing the full range of Islamic financial contracts including all types of Sukuk, capital market instruments, hedging contracts, banking and finance documents, Takaful insurance policies, Islamic fund documents and equity and partnership agreements.

Sheikh Bilal has over 20 years’ experience with cross-jurisdictional, multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary expertise and extensive experience of working with financial and professional institutions, public and private companies, Governments, regulatory bodies and central banks, private families, high net worth individuals and other key industry players. Sheikh Bilal also provides bespoke in-house professional training and setting up Shariah advisory boards for Islamic financial institutions and advisory firms.

Recent transactional work includes:

• Advising Akin Gump regarding a Production Sharing Agreement between SOMA Oil & Gas and the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
• Two families in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in respect of banking assets in the Kingdom and in the UK
• Advising a European Central Bank on structuring the central bank Wakala deposit facility including a high quality Sukuk fund to serve as asset backing for the deposits.
• Advising a GCC Central Bank on its product structure and related legal documentation for GCC and European counterparty investors.
• Advising Duff & Phelps (liquidators) and Harneys (offshore legal counsel) on a major litigation in the Cayman Islands involving allegations of fraud between two major Saudi family conglomerates (AHAB v SAAD). Advice relates to Islamic finance transactions, Islamic law, Saudi law, Saudi business custom/culture and Arabic documents and financial statements.
• Advising Twinza Oil Limited, an Australian upstream oil company on the issuance of a convertible corporate debt instrument for a GCC investor based on the principles of convertible Sukuk al-Musharaka and Musahama.
• Advising Thomson Reuters on an on-line legal information service platform, including drafting a suite of legal practice and drafting notes and example documentation for a wide range of Islamic financial products.
• Advising AXA on the structuring and launch of a Shariah compliant travel insurance product in the GCC.
• Advising a Luxembourg based fund on the launch of a Shariah compliant sustainable equity sub-fund.

In respect of arbitration and mediation, Sheikh Bilal has been uniquely placed to advise and guide parties to mutually beneficial settlements to avoid protracted litigation. His blend of legal expertise, language skills and awareness of cultural sensitivities allow him to build comprehensive understanding of the case and all its matters and then apply relevant laws and principles to develop appropriate recommendations and duly draft settlement agreements to assist parties with ending disputes whether that is in the form of arbitration or mediation.

Recent international arbitration and mediation work:

• Two families in one of the GCC countries in respect of banking assets in that country as well as in the UK and US following breakdown of trust and dispute over asset management strategies.
• Member of a high net worth family and US spouse on a multi-million-dollar inheritance dispute with physical assets, banking assets and shareholdings in several jurisdictions.
• Shareholders and management of an oil and gas company in one of the GCC countries after several failed attempts of exit strategies and dispute over valuation of the business and the buy-out attempts.
• Parent company’s dispute with a subsidiary and a third-party private equity company attempting a take-over of the group companies in one of the Middle Eastern countries worth 500 million dollars.
• Shariah compliant equity fund and management of the venture capital provider in one of the GCC countries regarding several events of default and payment obligations in the master legal agreement worth in excess of 200 million dollars.
• Dispute between partners in a private acquisition of a chain of hotels in one of the GCC countries based on the Shariah structure of Musharaka worth in excess of a billion dollars.
• Restructuring of a conventional bank into an Islamic bank in one of the Middle Eastern countries where a dispute arose between the new ownership of the bank and the attempted securitization of previous loan books worth several hundred million.
• Buy-out of an asset management company by an Islamic insurance operator in one of the Asian countries where a dispute arose on segregation of assets and co-mingling of funds for Shariah law purposes.