Diane d'Almeida

SUMMARY OF CREDENTIALS
Diane has close to 20 years’ experience as an England & Wales qualified international corporate, finance and investment lawyer across a wide variety of asset classes and industry sectors. Her experience stems from both top-tier large international law firms (London and Dubai) and strategic executive roles at leading UAE sovereign investment entities (Abu Dhabi).

Diane began her legal career at A&O Shearman (formerly Allen & Overy) in London, where she predominantly covered the EMEA region, including a secondment to Barclays Capital Investment Bank. In 2015, Diane moved to the Middle East and held a senior position at Norton Rose Fulbright (Dubai) prior to moving in-house within the sovereign wealth and investment space. Diane was a lead lawyer and Legal Business Partner at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Managing Director’s Office) after which she was appointed as founding Head of the Investment Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Unit within the Abu Dhabi Pension Fund’s Investment Operations Sector.

Diane’s international legal expertise includes corporate, commercial, finance and investment transactional and advisory work: M&A, joint ventures, commercial contracts, project development and finance, security offerings, IPOs, fund investments and co-investments (private equity, infrastructure and real estate), hedge funds, managed accounts, custody matters, investor due diligence and investment committees. She has regularly advised on company law, corporate governance, regulatory and compliance matters.

Winner of the 2017 Women in Law Award - Investment (Legal) Advisory. Member of ‘100 Women in Finance’ and the World Economic Forum’s Chief Legal Officer Community, globally. Diane has delivered Corporate Finance residential block training courses at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England, on behalf of Euromoney.

Diane is well versed in French and getting up to speed in German.

QUALIFICATIONS
Admitted as a Solicitor of England and Wales, 2009
Second admission in Ireland (EU), 2018
Professional Certification – Sustainable Finance, University of Cambridge, 2023
LLM - International Commercial Law, Salford Business School, UK, 2020
LPC - College of Law, London, 2007
LLB (Hons) Law - Lancashire Law School, UK, 2003 – First Class Honours Degree. Ranked 1st