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CCLS Alumni News

Please update us at ccls-alumni@qmul.ac.uk with your career progress or any other news that you would like to share.

CCLS Alumni News Updates

This is a snapshot of news from CCLS alumni across our commercial law specialisms.

2018

  • Queen Mary strengthens links in Latin America
    Senior academics from Queen Mary University of London’s School of Law visited Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia from 20-29 April to meet with alumni, offer holders, funding partners and prospective partner institutions. Find out more.
  • CCLS Alumn Uzma Ashraf Barton published first book "Rethinking Regulation of International Finance: Law, Policy and Institutions"
    Uzma Ashraf Barton, LLM Banking and Finance graduate 2007, has published her first book titled  (Wolters Kluwer). Uzma mentions in her book acknowledgement section that attending Queen Mary for her LLM at a critical time in the development of financial law triggered her interest in international finance, back in 2007. Ms Barton is currently a Fellow at the Asian Institute of International Financial Law, University of Hong Kong, and a Fellow at the Law & Economics Centre, George Mason University, USA. Prior to joining academia, she served as Assistant and Deputy Commissioner in the Government of Pakistan where she worked on various assignments implementing governance reforms. More recently, she has been engaged on a number of policy projects including at the Georgetown Law School, University of Hong Kong, and consults on fiscal and financial reforms with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
  • Dr Tom A. Fearnley taught a special class at CCLS to energy law and banking and finance law students, 2 February.

2017

  • Colombian Alumni Reunion in Bogota
    CCLS held an informal alumni reunion drinks on 2 November in Bogota, Colombia. It was organised by Professor Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal. Find out more.

2016

  • Offer holder event in Taipei
    On 24 March 2016, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) held an offer holder event in Taipei, Taiwan, which was attended by over 30 new course offer holders. The event featured two LLM alumni: Ivy Wu and Jerry Huang. They shared their unforgettable memories and experience of studying at the CCLS with offer holders, and gave their advice to everyone on studying, networking, and having fun. Read more about the Offer holder event in Taipei.
  • Greek Alumni Reunion in Athens
    On 16 March 2016 we held our first Greek Alumni Reunion in Athens. The event was attended by over 100 alumni students, legal professionals and new students interested in studying at the CCLS. Read more about the Greek Alumni Reunion in Athens. The reunion was also featured in LawNet (article in Greek).

2015

  • 10 Years of Media Law at CCLS
    On 9 December, CCLS held a drinks reception to celebrate 10 Years of Media Law with alumni, current staff and students. In December 2005, the first twelve students to take a media law course at QMUL, on the CCLS LLM programme, graduated. Ten years on, we have a large postgraduate Media Law class, with a number of students following an LLM specialism to graduate with an LLM in Media Law. An undergraduate Media Law course has now been running for several years and continues to grow in popularity, with over fifty students signing up this year. Including distance learning options, we now have approaching one hundred students annually taking one of the media law options at QMUL. Our text, Media Law & Practice (OUP, 2009), is in the early stages of working towards a second edition.
  • Pre-Graduation Drinks Reception
    In annual tradition, on 7 December 2015, the Department of Law held a reception for those postgraduate law students graduating the next day. This event, which was held at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, was well attended by students who had travelled from all over the world not only to celebrate their graduation but to reunite with classmates who had become dear friends. Several students expressed how happy they were to be back at CCLS as the start to their graduation festivities. This event continues to be a highlight year after year and it was an absolute pleasure to share this special time with our 2015 graduates.
  • PG Law Alumni London Drinks
    On November 27 2015 there was a meet up for some of our London alumni at Charterhouse Bar. The event was attended by a variety of our past students at all different levels of their career and served as a great opportunity for our past students to catch up with or meet for the first time some of the postgraduate law alumni who are still in London. Though very informal, it was great to see familiar faces and we look forward to hosting similar events in the future.
  • QMUL Postgraduate Law Mentoring
    QMUL Postgraduate School of Law is launching a new career mentoring programme for our best students wishing to progress their careers by building professional networks across the legal sector. To find out more, download our .
  • A Group of CCLS Alumni Established LBF Partners, an Istanbul-Based Law and Consultancy Firm.
    Our alumni Dr Nusret Cetin (LLM in Banking and Finance-2009 and PhD in Banking and Finance-2013) and M. Suat Kayikci (LLM in Energy Law-2011) have recently set up their own law and consultancy firm, LBF Partners based in Istanbul, together with global-minded academics and lawyers. Another CCLS alumnus, Dr Kadir Bas (PhD in Competition Law-2013), who is a lecturer at the Marmara University Law Faculty, also provides legal consultancy to the firm.
    LBF Partners offers full legal and consultancy services to its foreign and domestic clients both in Turkey and at international level. Its practice focuses on arbitration, banking and finance, capital markets, commercial and corporate law, competition, energy, foreign investment, and public international law.
    LBF Partners currently works as a hub for CCLS alumni in Turkey, and also aims to build a business network with other CCLS alumni practicing in different countries around the world.
  • The first meeting of the Postgraduate Law Alumni Society took place on 6th June 2015 during a reunion weekend hosted by CCLS
    More than 130 alumni from around the globe joined us, delighted to reconnect with faculty and fellow alumni, broaden professional networks and update their legal knowledge. Lincoln’s Inn Fields was the venue for the Friday evening reception where guests enjoyed drinks and canapé with tutors and staff members within the beautiful setting of the Great Hall. Professor Anne Flanagan, Director of the LLM and an alumna of CCLS, gave the welcome address, capturing the feeling of all present when she commented on the sense of belonging shared by Queen Mary PG Law alumni. The large number of people enjoying the evening clearly supported her comment and also her observation that life-long friendships are founded and flourish whilst studying at Queen Mary.
    On Saturday, opened the alumni conference chaired by Professor Sir Bernard Rix. During the morning, an expert panel of speakers considered issues of current Contract Law including ‘Misuse of Information in a Contractual Relationship’, ‘Good Faith in Contract Law’ and ‘Contracting for the Internet of Things’. That afternoon, alumni met to exchange ideas and lay the foundations of the new Postgraduate Law Alumni Society (PGLAS).
    The final event of the weekend was brunch on board a Thames riverboat. Alumni had the chance to meet each others’ families whilst enjoying a sunny trip along the river, taking in the sights of London.

2014

  • German Alumni Reunion Drinks
    Dr Noam Shemtov, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and Sue Sullivan, the LLM Coordinator would like to invite you to join them for an informal drinks reception on Saturday 15 March between 5pm and 7pm in the bar of  the Hotel Europa, München. If you would like to meet them for a drink, please register via the CCLS Eventbrite page.

2013

  • Call for Submissions: Global Antitrust Review is a unique global platform for students and young professionals to engage in research within the field of competition law and policy with a view to publishing the output in the form of scholarly articles, case commentary and book reviews. Read more about the Global Antitrust Review (GAR) and the Call for Submissions.
  • Krasimira Kadieva (LLM in International Business Law in 2010) has recently set up her own CSR and sustainability consulting firm called Eco Notion Ltd. The company is located in Sofia, Bulgaria. Krasimira is the founder of this business and she sees her role as helping organisations create, develop and implement successful sustainable strategies and programs. She is also involved in volunteering and pro bono work is an immense part of Eco Notion’s corporate culture. Krasimira was involved as a volunteer in the International Water Bridge 2012 project until 22 March 2012.
  • Aemen Zulfikar Maluka (LLM Alumna in Corporate and Media Law) is launching a database devoted to Pakistani laws online. Aemen is the owner and founder of Josh and Mak LLP law firm in Pakistan. She is a member of the Islamabad Bar Association and an advocate of the High Court, Punjab Bar Council. She is also a member of the Energy Institute, London, UK and a Door Tenant at Rowchester Chambers, Birmingham, UK. Aemen attributes her career success to her studies at Queen Mary University of London.
  • Queen Mary Interdisciplinary Centre for Competition Law and Policy (ICC) is a unique research centre aiming at the delivery of world-class work in the field of competition law and policy. It is run by a community of students, scholars and practitioners from Queen Mary and other institutions. The ICC Global Antitrust Review (GAR), which is published by the Centre every year, was founded in 2008 as a refereed student journal and represents another outstanding example of intellectual entrepreneurship at the ICC. The GAR aims to encourage and promote outstanding scholarship among young competition law scholars by providing a unique platform for students to engage in research within the field of competition law and policy with a view to publishing the output in the form of scholarly articles, case commentary and book reviews. The GAR is dedicated to achieving excellence in research and writing among the competition law students’ community around the world. Please see their website for previous publications and if you are interested in contributing to the next edition.
  • Dr Jennifer Farrell (QMUL School of Law PhD Alumna) was awarded the prestigious Mitchell B Carroll prize for 2011 for her doctoral thesis entitled, “The Interface of International Trade Law and Taxation: Defining the Role of the World Trade Organisation in the Field of International Taxation”. The prize was awarded to Jennifer at the opening ceremony for the 2011 International Fiscal Association (IFA) Congress which took place at the Palaisde Congrès in Paris on 11 September. During the congress, Jennifer also gave a presentation on her thesis to the Young IFA Network representatives attending. The Mitchell B Carroll prize was established by IFA in 1947 as a tribute to its first honorary president. It is awarded to a candidate of not more than 35 years of age for an outstanding work dealing with international fiscal questions, comparative fiscal law or local fiscal law. Jennifer Farrell is the first UK candidate to win the Mitchell B Carroll prize for more than 30 years.
  • Ms Zane Paeglīte, an associate, joined SORAINEN, a regional law firm operating in the Baltics and Belarus, in 2004. After graduating from CCLS in 2011 with an LLM in Corporate and Commercial Law, Zane leads the Corporate Advisory Team of SORAINEN Latvia. Zane's key areas of expertise include company law, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions. Another significant focus of her specialisation is cross-border mergers, as she was involved in structuring and implementing the very first cross-border merger cases advised by SORAINEN, thus also contributing to know-how of legal aspects of cross-border mergers. Zane has authored articles on Latvian and EU company law and recently acted as a researcher for the project of the London School of Economics on the study on directors’ liability, commissioned by the European Commission.

  • Pavithri Vithanage, Senior Assistant Controller of Exchange, Central Bank of Sri Lanka: “Having graduated with a Distinction in LLM in Banking and Finance, I returned to Sri Lanka and was appointed as a Senior Assistant Controller of Exchange at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). I function as the Head of the Exchange Control Policy and Investigation divisions and also as a resource person at the Centre for Banking Studies of CBSL. I thank Professor Lastra, Professor Dignam, Professor Roberts and other supporting staff for the excellent curricula presented and knowledge shared. A special mention of Professor Lastra who held a series of guest lectures par excellence by top legal personnel around the world, investment bankers and auditors. The experiences at QMUL have immensely enriched my life.”

  • John Rhie, who studied for the Post Graduate Diploma in Comparative International Commercial Arbitration and Investment Treaty Disputes at the School of International Arbitration in 2006-2007 has been hired by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Rhie is set to be the managing partner of the Hong Kong office. He has amassed an impressive career beginning at Herbert Smith in London, moving to McDermott Will & Emery and then to Kim & Changin Seoul. Rhie’s experience of negotiating complex disputes for Asian companies will serve him well in his new role at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
  • CCLS IP Awards: The Centre for Commercial Law Studies recognises excellent academic achievement in its specialised Intellectual Property programmes with an annual prize giving ceremony. The winners of the 2012 awards were:
    • Flora Cook - Director’s Prize for Certificate in Trade Mark Law and Practice
    • Jennifer McDowall - Director’s Prize for MSc Management of Intellectual Property
    • Dr Paul Dunne – Bill Caro Prize Winner and Best Overall Student
    • Daniel Sizer – GlaxoSmithKline Prize for Excellence in Patents on the Certificate in Intellectual Property Law and
    • Rajeev Daniel – GlaxoSmithKline Prize for Excellence in Patents on the Certificate in Intellectual Property Law.

2012

  • Call for Papers: YAR – Young Arbitration Review is an online publication for arbitration players to be informed and to be aware of the developments of arbitration from an international perspective. YAR was launched in January 2011 by Pedro Sousa Uva, who is currently an Associate Lawyer at Abreu Advogados in Lisbon, and a CCLS Alumnus student (LLM in Comparative and International Dispute Resolution 2008) and Gonçalo Malheiro, Junior Partner at PBBR Law Firm and co-head of its Litigation / Arbitration Department (CCLS LLM Alumnus 2006). Find out how to join the group or submit a paper to the .
  • In 2012 Queen Mary students and alumni took part in Willem C Vis Moot in International Commercial Arbitration in Vienna. This year's team was Constantin Klein (Germany), Thomas Baconin (France/Poland), Alisa Kashentseva (Russian Federation), Sougat Sinha (India), Daria Sakhno (Russian Federation) and Fabricio Fortese (Argentina). All team members are LLM Students at the SIA/CCLS. The team was coached by Mr Hayk Kupelyants (Armenia), Research Fellow in Private International Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and teaching assistant at the SIA, and Dr Zbysek Kordac (Czech Republic), a Czech and US qualified attorney who is currently reading for an LLM at the SIA/CCLS. The team is further supervised by Professor Loukas Mistelis, and Dr Stavros Brekoulakis.
  • Following the successful roundtable in March 2011, the Alumni & Friends of the School for International Arbitration (AFSIA) organised a similar roundtable in Frankfurt on Monday, 12 March 2012. The topic of the roundtable is current issues of investment practice, and the focus this year was on Investment Protection and the EU, namely the issues raised by the Commission's draft regulation - including the fate of intra-EU BITs, the grandfathering regulation concerning extra-EU BITs and the proposed division of competencies between the Council and the Commission - and future EU investment policies more generally.
  • Jessica Lavery, LLM class of 2010, got a full time job as a Corporate Privacy Analyst with Research In Motion (BlackBerry), based in Slough in February 2012. Jessica attributes her success in finding her current role to her LLM, which included modules in Privacy and Information Law, Telecoms Law and Computer Law.
  • Zoltan Sarkany, LLM in Banking and Finance, class of 2010, took part in the Financial Times and ICFFR competition 2011 and got his paper published in the Highly Commended Papers section.
  • Francesco Conti, LLM in Commercial and Corporate Law, class of 2010, is now working in one of the biggest Italian Law Firms, Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli and Partners.
  • Lucia Satragno has recently obtained a job working as a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute based in Bern, Switzerland. Lucia is a qualified Argentinean lawyer, who practised for seven years as a legal counsel in the area of banking and finance law in Argentina and Latin America. In 2010 she decided to do the LLM course at the CCLS as a break in her career in order to deepen her knowledge of international finance and banking law and also as a personal experience by living in one of the most amazing cities of the world. Lucia says that she chose QMUL mainly because of the excellence of its academics and for the specialised programme that it offers. After graduating from the LLM as ‘Best Student Specialising in Banking and Finance Law’ Lucia decided to stay in Europe in order to have an international career and got a job at the World Trade Institute based in Bern, Switzerland. She says that: “None of these achievements could have been possible without th generous and selfless support that I had from the QMUL academic and non-academic staff and especially from Professor Rosa Maria Lastra to whom I am very grateful”.