Dubai, 14 December 2010 - Preempting increasingly fast moving regulatory reform across Middle Eastern markets, Law firm Clyde & Co LLP has further expanded its Middle Eastern regulatory and compliance offering with the addition of Lisa Kelaart-Courtney as Head of Compliance Services.

Clyde & Co has significantly expanded its Regulatory, Governance and Compliance offering over the past two years, with other regional additions including corporate partner James O'Shea, formerly head of regulatory based in Clyde & Co's London office, contentious regulatory, corporate compliance partner Rebecca Kelly, who was formerly with DLA Piper in the Middle East, and Head of Corporate Services Robert Ford whose background includes time at Citco Group London, Clifford Chance, Mayer Brown and BDO Stoy Hayward.

Lisa joins Clyde & Co from dual current roles as a Director of financial services compliance consulting company CCL Limited in Dubai, and Technical Assistance Advisor for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where she most recently was the project leader of the Thailand master implementation programme in relation to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering of financing of terrorism (CTF) as part of a complete reform and overhaul of parts of the Thai system and related legal and regulatory structure. Previously, Lisa has held positions as an Associate Director with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and Director of Standard and Poor's and Zurich Financial Services. Lisa's role with Clyde & Co will include providing a wide range of compliance services to financial services organisations.

Dubai based partner Wayne Jones, an insurance / reinsurance industry specialist commented on Lisa's arrival: "The regional market is undergoing a period of rapid change, characterised by regulatory reforms across the six GCC states. Very rarely does a month go by without a new raft of regulations being issued in the industry. There is much to do and we expect that these extensive regulatory reforms will continue for at least the next three to five years. Financial services providers will need extensive support to stay current, comply with new requirements, in order to enable them to remain focused on core activities".

Clyde & Co's Regulatory, Governance and Compliance Unit includes both legal and non-legal professionals providing a range of legal and compliance services to financial and non-financial services companies. These include assisting with authorisation, and ongoing regulation, dealing with enforcement issues; providing corporate governance and transactional support; preparation and maintenance of compliance programmes, ongoing compliance monitoring; outsourced compliance services, litigation support and training. The team is supported internally by specialized Corporate Services, Compliance and Company Secretarial support units, providing services including government liaison, legal translation, authorised officer functions, compliance monitoring, and company secretarial functions for regulatory filings, address for service and board maintenance.

Clyde & Co has four Middle Eastern offices, which operate as a single unit, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Doha in Qatar, and an associated office in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The firm formalised its presence in the Middle East in 1989 after many years of client activity in the region. Today Clyde & Co is recognised as one of the major international law firms in the Middle East.

-Ends-

Clyde & Co LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC326539. A list of members is available for inspection at its registered office 51 Eastcheap, London EC3M 1JP. Clyde & Co LLP uses the word "partner" to refer to a member of the LLP, or an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualifications. Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

About Clyde & Co
Clyde & Co is a major multi-national law firm with a network of 23 offices spread across key trading centres throughout the world. Clyde & Co is also one of the largest international law firms in the GCC with around 150 specialist lawyers and paralegals operating as one cohesive unit across offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and an associated office in Riyadh.

For further information about Clyde & Co in the Middle East please contact
Clinton Swan - Head of Business Development & Marketing (Middle East Region)
Clyde & Co LLP, Dubai office
Tel: +971 4 312 8568
clinton.swan@clydeco.aee

Clyde & Co - International offices:
Clyde & Co is a leading international law firm with over 1,300 employees worldwide. Clyde & Co is particularly well known for expertise in relation to international trade, emerging markets and in relation to high profile and/or difficult dispute work.

The firm has offices in Abu Dhabi, Caracas, Doha, Dubai, Guildford, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, Nantes, New Jersey, New York, Paris, Piraeus, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and associate offices in Bangalore, Belgrade, Dar es Salaam, Mumbai, Riyadh, and St Petersburg. The firm also has an exclusive co-operation agreement with a major law office in Iraq.

www.clydeco.com

Middle East media communications
James Madsen - Senior Consultant,
Capital MS&L, Dubai
Tel: +971 (0)4 367 6175
james.madsen@capitalmsl.com

© Press Release 2010