Islamic finance expert Abradat Kamalpour’s departure from Dechert to Ashurst in London is intended to consolidate Ashurst’s Euro-Middle East Islamic finance practice and may dent Dechert’s firm grip in this area. Kamalpour, Dechert’s Islamic finance star, is expected to be a solid bridge between Ashurst’s Middle East and London office, having extensive experience in transforming non-compliant structures into financial instruments acceptable to Islamic investors, one of the coveted skills that propelled him to stardom in Dechert.

Just one week before his move to Ashurst, Kamalpour advised Blomfield Corporate Finance Ltd as broker to The Family Shariah Fund Limited on the company’s US$32m placing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. It is the first Shariah-compliant multi-asset class fund to gain admission to AIM and will provide investors with exposure to a variety of Shari’ah compliant investments predominantly outside the Gulf region. The placing attracted investment from wealthy individuals, families and institutional investors in both the Middle East and Europe.

“Prior to Abradat, we have not really had an Islamic finance group as such but rather pockets of expertise. His move makes sense for us, as he can work with the lawyers in that group to provide Shariah-compliant products to our clients,” said Nick Bryans, managing partner in Ashurst’s Dubai office.

Dechert has no Middle East offices, and is shifting its Islamic finance practice from London to New York. The firm denies that Kamalpour’s departure dents its strategy vis-à-vis the Islamic market. “Abradat is moving to work with a practice that covers the energy and projects area, in which we do not specialise. This does not change our commitment to the Middle East,” said a Dechert spokesman.

A law and construction management graduate from Australia, Kamalpour joined Norton Rose as an associate before making partner in Dechert in 2006 and becoming its Islamic finance head. He specialises in securitisation, debt capital markets and structured finance transactions.

Ashurst opened an office in Dubai in 2005 and one in Abu Dhabi in June this year. It announced a 17% increase in annual income of up to US$596m. The average profit per partner was also up by 9% to US$1.53m.