Legal Consultant
Michèle is a French/Lebanese senior lawyer with over 25 years of experience. She is admitted to the Bars of Paris and Beirut and specialises in banking and finance (conventional and Islamic). She has received a Diplôme d’Ėtudes Supérieures Spécialisées (DESS) in banking and finance from Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne and was an awarded doctorate in law by Université Paris II, Panthéon-Assas for her thesis on fiduciary contracts and trusts in comparative law.
In her professional path, Michèle worked with the banking and finance departments of Allen & Overy, Dubai and Herbert Smith, Paris. She was also appointed as the head of the structured finance department of Arab Finance Investment House, the first Investment Islamic bank in Beirut affiliated to Qatar Islamic Bank. In 2006, she established her own boutique law firm in Beirut.
During her professional career, she has mainly been involved in cross border transactions involving interests in France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
She has developed and advised on structures related to conventional and Islamic finance and has negotiated and drafted the documentation in respect of asset backed securitisations, LMA syndicated loans, security agreements/collaterals, Murabaha/Musawama arrangements, Tawarruq, Tahawwut, Mudaraba, Sukuks, Ijara and Istisn’a financings. She has also advised a multinational on the establishment of an Islamic bank in Casablanca, Morocco.
Michèle also gives lectures to the LLM students of Université Saint Jospeh law school in Beirut and Dubai.
She is fluent in written and spoken Arabic, English and French and has a good command of Italian.