Oliver Agha

Oliver Agha, a founding partner of Agha & Shamsi, has a long history in Islamic finance and served as Global Head of Islamic Finance and Head of the Saudi Arabian practice at a major international law firm before founding Agha & Shamsi as a Shariah compliant law firm.

Mr. Agha is recognized as a leading Islamic finance authority; Mr. Agha is on two committees of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the leading standard-setting body for the Islamic finance industry. Mr. Agha led the Islamic finance team that won a Sheikh Maktoum endorsed global recognition in Islamic finance award in 2008, and is recognized as a top Islamic finance lawyer by numerous publications including Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, Who's Who Legal (UAE Special Edition 2008), IFLR magazine (as one of the world's leading Islamic finance lawyers in the "Recommendation of their Peers" article), International Who's Who, Expert Guides: Best of the Best Islamic Finance Lawyers 2008, 2009 and as one of the top 20 lawyers that helped the Gulf's economic boom by the Brief Magazine in 2008. He is the author of published papers and articles and has given presentations regarding salient Islamic finance topics in the GCC, U.S., Europe and Asia and is a frequent expert commentator on television and radio.

Mr. Agha brings a deep knowledge of Shariah, acquired after years of continuing study, coupled with hands-on experience in structuring, documenting and negotiating landmark deals in the region with a business-savvy, client friendly and responsive approach.

Mr. Agha routinely advises on devising innovative yet compliant and commercially practical Islamic finance structures in ijara, murabaha, mudaraba, takaful, musharaka, istisna'a, wakala and sukuk among other specialized Islamic vehicles. Mr. Agha's practice covers a number of sectors including Islamic project finance (petrochemicals, power, transportation, real estate and infrastructure), Islamic banking, Islamic capital markets (sukuk) and Islamic private equity, Islamic real estate financing and Islamic insurance (takaful).

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