Zharif

Zharif is currently the Managing Partner and Head of the Corporate Commercial Practice Group of Zharif Nizamuddin. His practice focuses on the areas of mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, capital markets & securities, private equity & venture capital and compliance.

Zharif brings with him extensive experience and expertise having sat on both sides of the table as a legal professional. He started his legal career with the corporate commercial practice group of an international law firm; and subsequently joined Shell, a global group of energy and petrochemical companies as the company’s in-house legal counsel. 

During the early years of his career, Zharif built a strong foundation in corporate commercial law and worked with multinational companies, private equity companies, small and medium businesses, government-linked organisations and statutory bodies. Zharif gained crucial industry knowledge advising clients in diverse industries, including oil & gas, private healthcare facilities, currency exchange services, pharmaceuticals and distributive trade.

In Shell, Zharif strengthened his business and legal acumen by being involved in various corporate commercial transactions as an in-house counsel based in Malaysia and the company’s headquarters in The Netherlands. He advised the company on a wide range of matters, from high-value projects involving its Malaysian-based downstream operations; to complex deals in respect of the provision of technical and consulting services to downstream, midstream and upstream customers globally, as the lead counsel for “Shell Global Solutions” in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Russia and Africa. He was a certified trainer for Shell's Anti-Bribery and Corruption course, mandatory for all employees categorised as “high-risk”; and is knowledgeable in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and the UK Bribery Act 2010. 

In his free time he indulges in reading, typically immersing himself in well-researched fiction books, though he often finds himself reading to his children nowadays. He is an admirer of strategy games and is always up for a good sporting challenge.

Zharif was admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor in the High Court of Malaya in 2010. He holds a Bachelor of Legal Studies (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Universiti Teknologi MARA, where he was recognised as the best graduate for both degrees. He served as an Executive Committee Member of the Malaysian Corporate Counsel Association for the 2014/2015 term, and is a Lifetime Member of the Malay College Old Boys Association