Dubai: Global law firm Clyde & Co has announced the appointment of Neal Ysart as Lead Regulatory and Investigations Advisor to launch a new consultancy service within its Regulatory and Investigations practice in the Middle East. Neal will be based in the firm’s Dubai office.
Clyde & Co’s Regulatory & Investigations Group helps clients build resilience against increasingly complex regulation, both locally and internationally, providing cross-border and multi-jurisdictional support to ensure they achieve and maintain compliance across their organisation. The group has the experience and knowledge to bolster compliance in established regulatory frameworks, and the capability to provide rapid, detailed responses to new regulations and legal requirements.
Neal has more than 35 years of investigative experience with over 16 years working in law enforcement, including in a specialist Scotland Yard squad. He joins from EY in Dubai where he led the Forensic Technology practice for the Middle East. His private sector experience also includes leading a 140-strong team as Regional Head of Group KYC Operations at HSBC to conduct complex due diligence investigations across the MENAT region. He also spent 12 years with PwC, where he conducted and led investigations globally in a range of areas, including financial crime, information/cyber security, regulatory breaches, fraud, security, AML, bribery and corruption.
Organisations in the Middle East face increasingly complex business problems that can result in regulatory issues or matters that require independent and confidential investigation. With the new offering, Clyde & Co will be able to provide a comprehensive service to help organisations to recognise, identify, investigate and manage the threat of financial crime and other regulatory risks in the region.
The team includes lawyers and former regulators, management consultants and law enforcement specialists and will be led by Matthew Shanahan, Partner and Head of the Regulatory & Investigations practice in the Middle East.
“Neal brings unique investigations experience to our global regulatory and investigations group. Typically organisations have to engage both management consultants and lawyers to achieve their objectives. With Neal’s strategic experience and our team’s broad range and depth of expertise, this new service will provide a one-stop-shop that will save both time and money, and also help ensure that any legal or regulatory concerns are identified early,” Matthew Shanahan, said.
“I am absolutely delighted to join a firm with such an extensive offering and reputation as Clyde & Co. This is a unique approach and I believe that businesses will certainly benefit from legal know-how and regulatory interpretation being integrated into deliverables. Helping the firm launch this innovative service in the Middle East is an exciting opportunity,” Neal Ysart said.
Neal joins Clyde & Co’s Regulatory & Investigations Group which operates internationally. This group has expanded recently in London through the hiring of a new partner and corporate crime and regulatory specialist, Rachel Cropper-Mawer. The group also recently launched a global private prosecutions service for businesses and individuals, drawing on Clyde & Co’s strong multi-jurisdictional team of litigators and advocates with experience in civil and criminal proceedings, defending and prosecuting, both on behalf of the state and regulators. Clyde & Co also similarly boosted its global cyber practice with the hire of cyber risk expert, Ian Birdsey, furthering its strategy to provide an integrated, end-to-end cyber solution to organisations that navigate the significant operational risks arising from data breaches and cyber incidents.
Clyde & Co has the largest presence and is one of most experienced international law firms in the Middle East with over 40 partners and 300 staff, based full time in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE, Doha in Qatar, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The firm supports international investors and local organisations throughout the wider region with a full-service offering of local specialists across most business sectors and areas of law, including commercial, corporate, dispute resolution, employment, intellectual property, international arbitration, finance & banking, insurance, projects & construction, real estate, regulatory & investigations, and technology.
