Osman is a seasoned business adviser and results-driven legal executive with over 20 years’ experience as trusted corporate counsel in the Oil & Gas, Construction and Building Technologies sectors and in private practice.  He has close to two decades’ worth of experience in the Middle East, six years of which he spent heading up regional in-house legal functions at United Technologies Corporation (Legal Director, Middle East and Turkey) and BP plc (Head of Legal, MENA).  Before co-founding Argentum Law, Osman also gained considerable international experience in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and North Africa with world-class organizations including Carillion plc (Solicitor, MENA) and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

Selected representative roles and matters:

• Over his career Osman has counselled executive-suite management teams of listed multinationals on a multitude of corporate/commercial matters, including JVs, strategic alliances, M&A, expansions/restructurings, enterprise risk management, BCPs, governance/compliance, commercial transactions, disputes, trade sanctions, and employment.
• Advising on acquiring aviation fuel sales and marketing concessions at two Iraqi airports and leading on establishment of local operations.
• Advising on the bid to acquire downstream assets of an oil major exiting Egypt (due diligence, contract drafting and responding to tenders).
• Advising multinationals in regard to restructuring routes to market in Pakistan, Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq and assisted them navigate disputes with local distributors.
• Advising multinationals on business set-ups, acquisitions/divestitures and disputes in the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Cyprus, Thailand, Ethiopia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
• Advising on tenders and negotiated construction contracts relating to construction mega-projects in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, including infrastructure, residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects.
• Advising the successful bidder on first-ever hostile takeover in history of North American biotechnology industry (valued at USD 584 million).
• Advising on shareholder and partners disputes relating to various industries.
• Advising on agency, distribution and franchising agreements relating to the Middle East region.