A key strength of our Islamic finance practice is the ability to offer teams which combine technical expertise in conventional finance transactions with an in-depth understanding of the principles of Islamic finance.

Leading Islamic finance practitioner, Neil D Miller joined Linklaters in April 2013 as Global Head of Islamic Finance. Neil works closely with Richard O’Callaghan and the rest of the firm’s Islamic Finance team to provide a truly global network of expertise and knowledge. To achieve this, in addition to our established Islamic Finance presence in UAE and Singapore, our Islamic Finance network is able to draw on the broad experience of a legal team that has advised on a wide range of ground breaking transactions throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Over the course of acting on previous and current transactions, we have developed close relationships with the Sharia scholars most commonly advising on Islamic finance transactions. We also maintain close relationships with local law firms and with Islamic financial institutions around the world, which ensures that we are best placed to meet the varied needs of our clients for Islamic finance work.

First-of-a-kind transactions

Lawyers in our Islamic Finance group have worked on the cutting edge of the Islamic finance field, and have worked on many award-winning and first-of-a-kind transactions. These have included advising on the first ever:

• pari passu ranking secured sukuk and bank facility
• Renminbi-denominated sukuk
• greenfield project sukuk
• restructuring/liability management of sukuk
• high yield sukuk
• lower tier two sukuk
• sukuk under DIFC law
• mandatory convertible sukuk
• exchangeable sukuk in Asia
• sale of the Islamic banking division of a Qatari bank
• tier 1 perpetual sukuk
• aviation fund
• pan European real estate fund
• Middle East Islamic PPP tranche