James Coleman heads up the regional Corporate and M&A team and also plays an active role in our investment funds and venture capital practices.
He has extensive experience advising across the full spectrum of corporate transactions, specialising in private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and corporate reorganisations, as well as on investment fund establishment. Based in the region for over fifteen years, James has built a diverse client base which includes some of the GCC’s leading corporates, technology companies, private equity funds, hedge funds, investment managers, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions and state-owned enterprises.
James has also remained at the forefront of the region’s venture capital ecosystem, and leads a practice which has grown to support not only VC investment managers and high-growth companies (particularly those in the emerging tech sector), but also CVCs and regulators. He is well versed in the establishment of studios and accelerators, has supports regulators to implement new venture capital-specific legislation, advising on the establishment of venture capital funds, and executing investments from pre-seed through to Series A and beyond.
James’ experience includes advising Brookfield on its acquisition of Oman Towers Company, stc on its strategic partnership to develop a new sub-sea and terrestrial fibre optic cable system linking Europe with Asia, and MTN on its strategic partnership with Ant Financial to transform MTN's MoMo (Mobile Money) platform FinTech. As regards fund establishment, James’ experience includes advising on multiple firsts, including the first fund in the ADGM, the first credit fund in the DIFC, and on multiple venture fund raises including Shorooq Partners on the creation and launch of Presight–Shorooq Fund I, a pioneering $100 million global AI innovation fund based in the ADGM.
Lauded as “client focused” with the ability to “convert legal codes into practical insights and advice”, James is ranked as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, IFLR 1000 and Legal 500. He is fluent in English and German.
