Charles Russell Speechlys boosts corporate practice

Charles Russell Speechlys has confirmed the appointment of Rupert Copeman-Hill as partner and the firm’s head of business services, who will lead the firm’s Corporate and Commercial teams in Bahrain and Qatar.

Rupert Copeman-Hill joins the firm’s Bahrain office with nearly 20 years international experience advising on M&A and investment transactions, joint ventures, capital raisings, private equity transactions and commercial and corporate governance matters in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Copeman-Hill’s regional experience includes advising the shareholders of Abu Dhabi based Target Engineering & Construction LLC on the sale of 60 per cent of their shares to Arabtec (listed on Dubai Financial Market); CapitaLand on a US$2 billion joint venture with Mubadala Development Company for the mixed use development Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi; Oasis Capital Bank as lead investor in New York based Capital Spring Finance Company LLC, a provider of speciality finance solutions and Oasis Capital Bank on its joint venture with The UNITE Group plc to develop three student accommodation facilities in London, together with structuring a private equity fund to sell down part of OCB’s equity interest to high net worth investors.

Patrick Gearon, head of Middle East commented,“We are delighted to announce the appointment of Rupert, to lead our Business Services team. With an impressive background, and significant experience in acting for listed and unlisted multi-national corporations, financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies and high net worth individuals, he will be a huge asset to our office and the GCC region. With Rupert’s lengthy experience in the region he will hit the ground running and be critical in ensuring our firm maintains its reputation as one of the Gulf’s leading law firms.”