Juris Corp to open Chennai office Partner Hufriz Wadia to head operations

Juris Corp is all set to open its office in Chennai next week with Hufriz Wadia, former Senior Associate at Dubai based law firm Al Tamimi & Company, joining the firm as a Partner. Hufriz will head the Chennai office and her areas of focus will be banking (including Islamic banking), and corporate and dispute resolution..Hufriz worked with Al Tamimi & Company for five years where she advised on conventional and Islamic financing transactions and structuring. Hufriz is a Solicitor with the Bombay Incorporated Law Society and is also a Solicitor in England & Wales..After graduating from KC Law College in Mumbai, Hufriz completed her articleship with Udwadia & Udeshi, subsequently joining the firm in 2005. In 2006, she moved to Wadia Ghandy & Co where she worked for a year and a half before moving to Al Tamini & Company..On joining Juris Corp, Hufriz said, “I look forward to developing our practice in South India, working closely with a very talented and dedicated team of lawyers.”.Juris Corp Co-founder and Senior Partner, H. Jayesh said, “We wanted to strengthen our Islamic Finance practice and are delighted to have someone on board with a rich and varied experience. We are doing some amount out of work in this nascent area There is a huge potential out there and it is always good to have someone who has the experience in the area”..“An added bonus is that this will give us a presence in Chennai. We had been planning to set up an office in South India for some time now though we were looking for the right person to start it with and we think Hufriz is the right person to lead our South India practice”, added Jayesh..Talking about Islamic finance practice in India, Hufriz said, “With respect to India, there is actually a lot of interest in this field. Even while I was in Dubai, we used to get lot of queries from Indian companies. We don’t see this as a financing for a particular community; we see it as a very structured type of financing available to companies depending on the requirements. We think the area has lot of potential”..“The Reserve Bank of India sees difficulty for banks to engage in Islamic finance at this point in time unless the rules are changed. So, we take this to mean that there is no problem with non-banking entities. In fact, we have already got some interesting queries from non-banking entities”, added Hufriz..This new appointment brings the total number of partners at the firm to 12.