Ashurst raids Dechert for Islamic finance star Kamalpour

Ashurst raids Dechert for Islamic finance star Kamalpour" class="inline_image inline_image_left" src="/pictures/web/images/13311_Abradat-Kamalpour-ashurst.jpg" />Ashurst has bolstered its Islamic finance practice with the hire of Dechert’s London-based Islamic finance head Abradat Kamalpour.

Kamalpour is set to join Ashurst’s London office as a partner in the firm’s securities and structured products team. Having joined Dechert’s partnership in 2006 from his position as a Norton Rose associate, Kamalpour has played an integral part in developing Dechert’s Islamic finance and Middle Eastern capabilities.

Welcoming Kamalpour to Ashurst, the firm’s Dubai managing partner Nick Bryans said: “Abradat will give us a significant advantage internationally. Being able to use innovative Islamic structures in a range of areas such as project finance and leveraged finance will be fantastic for the firm.”

Bryans added that Kamalpour’s addition should help the firm attract further recruits to its Islamic finance practice in London and the Middle East.

At Ashurst Kamalpour will join a team that includes partners John Inglis and Tahir Ahmed, both of whom joined the firm from Norton Rose last year.

Kamalpour joined Dechert as part of the firm’s push into the Islamic finance arena that also saw it hire King & Spalding Islamic finance veteran Michael McMillen. Earlier this year McMillen left Dechert to head Fulbright & Jaworski’s global Islamic finance practice.

Dechert’s Islamic finance practice will now be led by New York-based partner Andreas Junius, who joined from Clifford Chance in 2006.

On Kamalpour’s departure, a Dechert spokesperson said: “Abradat is moving to work with a practice that covers the energy and projects area, in which we don’t specialise. This does not change our commitment to the Middle East.”