Home / People / Helen Dean

Helen Dean

Senior Associate

Portrait of Helen Dean

Helen Dean

Senior Associate

Contact
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Landmark building
6rd Floor
23rd July Street
PO Box 41, PC 136
Muscat
Oman
Languages English
Banking & Finance

Helen Dean is a Senior Associate with the Muscat Office. She has acted for a variety of banks and other financial institutions and borrowers (multinational, Government-owned entities and locally based corporations) in relation to banking and finance matters including corporate facilities, asset based lending and project finance, principally in the energy and transportation sectors. She has been involved in the full range of facilities, from billion dollar asset secured syndicated facilities to smaller unsecured loans. She has extensive experience of managing the complete process from the term sheet to drawdown. In addition, she has advised banks on banking regulatory issues and ISDA documentation.

Helen has been based in the Sultanate of Oman for over 9 years. Prior to joining CMS, Ms Dean worked for an American law firm in Muscat, a leading Scottish law firm in Aberdeen and an international City of London law firm. Ms Dean received her B.A. with honours from the University of Cambridge, UK and her masters LL.M. (with an emphasis on international finance and international law of natural resources) from the University College, London.

more less

"making a name for herself as a very talented lawyer on the corporate and banking side" and an “Associate to Watch”

Chambers UK

"making a name for herself as a very talented lawyer on the corporate and banking side" and an “Associate to Watch”

Chambers UK

Relevant experience

  • Dalma Energy LLC on the restructuring of a USD 340m facility agreement with Deutsche Bank.
  • Oman Gas SAOC on the refinancing of their pipeline (approx. USD 70m) with National Bank of Oman.
  • Abraj Energy Services LLC on two loan facilities (together USD 130m) from National Bank of Oman and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi to finance the acquisition of rigs, including intercreditor issues.
  • Oman Air SAOC, as Omani counsel, in connection with its purchase and lease of seven Airbus aircraft financed by Citibank, JP Morgan and various export credits agencies, including the registration of the leases and related documents in Oman.
  • Salalah Mills, as Omani counsel, in connection with a large facilities agreement with Credit Suisse to finance the acquisition of various equipment.
  • Enerflex Ltd, as Omani counsel to its Omani subsidiary, in relation to various credit agreement guarantees and a note purchase guarantee in respect of a refinancing and note offering by Enerflex Ltd.
  • BankMuscat SAOG on a wide range of confidential matters, including reviewing and amending all their ISDA Agreements and collateralisation between BankMuscat and third party banks/customers.
  • National Arab Bank in relation to a secured financing account agreement including a detailed review of the financing agreement and the relevant regulatory framework.
  • Oman International Bank in relation to sanctions in respect of various countries including a comprehensive overview of US, UK and EC sanctions against various counties.
  • A financial group, in conjunction with the litigation team, in relation to the enforceability of various security in Oman including detailed advice on the procedure for enforcement of the relevant security and alternative action that could be taken.
more less

Education

  • 2005 – LL.M. in Law and Development (with an emphasis on the International Law of Natural Resources, and the Law of International Finance), University College London, London
  • 1995 - Graduate Diploma in the Legal Practice Course, College of Law, York
  • 1993 – B.A. (Hons) in Law, Magdalene College, Cambridge University, Cambridge
more less
Commercial

Helen Dean is a Senior Associate with the Muscat Office. She has advised numerous multinational, Government-owned entities and locally based corporations on various aspects of Oman commercial and corporate law as well as in relation to banking and finance matters. She has extensive Omani corporate and commercial law experience including setting up companies in Oman, agency agreements, shareholder agreements, joint ventures, commercial supply contracts, corporate governance and bidding for Government contracts.

Helen has been based in the Sultanate of Oman for over 9 years. Prior to joining CMS, Ms Dean worked for an American law firm in Muscat, a leading Scottish law firm in Aberdeen and an international City of London law firm. Ms Dean received her B.A. with honours from the University of Cambridge, UK and her masters LL.M. from the University College, London. She was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1998.

more less

"making a name for herself as a very talented lawyer on the corporate and banking side" and an “Associate to Watch”

Chambers UK

"making a name for herself as a very talented lawyer on the corporate and banking side" and an “Associate to Watch”

Chambers UK

Relevant experience

  • Oman Sail LLC on numerous corporate and commercial matters including reviewing and amending its HR conflicts of interest policy, its constitutional contract, the construction contract for a semi-permanent building at Al Mouj, water sports services contracts, sponsorship agreements and advising on the acquisition of shares in a chartering company.
  • Oman Investment Corporation SAOC, a private equity company, in relation to a significant investment in the project company for the Salalah Independent Water and Power Project.
  • Ministry of Tourism in relation to the draft development agreement for the Omagine Project and the various commitments made by the promoters of the project.
  • Energy International in relation to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company’s competitive tender for a temporary power generation project in Sohar and the setting up of an LLC and various Omani law aspects of the temporary power project.
  • Sensys Traffic AB in connection with a contract with the Royal Oman Police (ROP) relating to red traffic light enforcement cameras including the review, advice, amendment and negotiation of a distributorship agreement and the contract with the ROP.
  • Oman Airport Management Company in relation with the establishment of appropriate corporate structure for three major oil companies in Oman to manage aviation fuel storage facilities.
  • Ministry of Defence Pension Fund in relation with the ability of the pension fund to make various investments and the appropriate structure.
  • Exterran Holdings Inc on various matters including the legal options available for doing business in Oman pursuant to the US-Oman Free Trade.
  • Global Strategies in relation to a shareholders agreement with a major Omani company and the formation of an LLC.
more less

Education

  • 2005 – LL.M. in Law and Development (with an emphasis on the International Law of Natural Resources, and the Law of International Finance), University College London, London
  • 1995 - Graduate Diploma in the Legal Practice Course, College of Law, York
  • 1993 – B.A. (Hons) in Law, Magdalene College, Cambridge University, Cambridge
more less
Energy & Climate Change

Helen Dean is a Senior Associate with the Muscat Office. She has advised multinational, Government-owned entities and locally based corporations on a variety of issues in the energy and projects sector including petroleum, gas, electricity and water sectors.

Helen has been based in the Sultanate of Oman for over 9 years. Prior to joining CMS, Ms Dean worked for an American law firm in Muscat, a leading Scottish law firm in Aberdeen and an international City of London law firm. Ms Dean received her B.A. with honours from the University of Cambridge, UK and her masters LL.M. (with an emphasis on international finance and international law of natural resources) from the University College, London. She was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1998.

With more than 450 energy and climate change lawyers, including over 100 partners, the CMS Energy and Climate Change practice is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Led from its centres of excellence such as London and Aberdeen, the practice works across 75 offices globally. Building on 40 years of experience advising on power, oil & gas and renewables through to energy disputes, emerging areas and Energy Transition, CMS is uniquely placed to ensure clients receive advice best suited to their commercial needs and to our collective future.

more less

Relevant experience

  • Petrogas Rima LLC in relation to various disputes relating to a services agreement.
  • Oman Investment Corporation SAOC, a private equity company, in relation to a significant investment in the project company for the Salalah Independent Water and Power Project.
  • Energy International in relation to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company’s competitive tender for a temporary power generation project in Sohar and then advised on the setting up of an LLC and various Omani law aspects of the temporary power project.
  • Dalma Energy LLC on the restructuring of a USD 340m facility agreement with Deutsche Bank;
  • Oman Gas SAOC on the refinancing of their pipeline (approx. USD 70m) with National Bank of Oman.
  • Abraj Energy Services LLC on two loan facilities (together USD 130m) from National Bank of Oman and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi to finance the acquisition of rigs.
  • Standard Chartered Bank, as Omani counsel, in relation to a loan facility for a power project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
more less

Education

  • 2005 – LL.M. in Law and Development (with an emphasis on the International Law of Natural Resources, and the Law of International Finance), University College London, London
  • 1995 - Graduate Diploma in the Legal Practice Course, College of Law, York
  • 1993 – B.A. (Hons) in Law, Magdalene College, Cambridge University, Cambridge
more less

Expertise

Feed

15/02/2022
Oman Bank­ruptcy Law
Be­fore the new bank­ruptcy law (Roy­al De­cree 53/2019) (the “Bank­ruptcy Law”) came in­to ef­fect in Oman, the laws and reg­u­la­tions reg­u­lat­ing bank­ruptcies were lim­ited and simply ad­dressed in laws such...
Law-Now Corporate
09/02/2022
Over­view of the Reg­u­la­tions to the Com­mer­cial Com­pan­ies Law
The Reg­u­la­tions to the Com­mer­cial Com­pan­ies Law (the “Reg­u­la­tions”) were is­sued un­der Omani Min­is­teri­al De­cision No.146/2021 by the Min­istry of Com­merce, In­dustry and In­vest­ment Pro­mo­tion (“MO­CIIP”)...
Law-Now Corporate
15/06/2021
The end of USD LIBOR in Oman
Across Oman and the Middle East, USD LIBOR has been used as a bench­mark for the cal­cu­la­tion of in­terest in US Dol­lar de­nom­in­ated loans and oth­er fin­an­cial trans­ac­tions.  In par­tic­u­lar, it has been used...
Law-Now Banking & Finance
03/06/2021
The in­tro­duc­tion of VAT in the Sul­tan­ate of Oman: a brief leg­al guide
GCC mem­ber states all signed up to the GCC-Wide VAT Agree­ment in 2016, which serves as a guide for gulf coun­cil states to im­ple­ment al­most identic­al, do­mest­ic value ad­ded tax (VAT) laws in the sup­ply...
Law-Now Life Sciences & Healthcare
10/05/2021
Ar­bit­ra­tion in Oman un­der the New OCAC Rules
The Sul­tan­ate of Oman took its first steps in re­la­tion to ar­bit­ra­tion with the Law of Ar­bit­ra­tion in Civil and Com­mer­cial Dis­putes (Roy­al De­cree No. 47/1997) (the Law) which was based on the UN­CIT­RAL...
Law-Now Dispute Resolution
10/05/2021
Ar­bit­ra­tion Law in Oman – Re­cent De­vel­op­ments 
Leg­al de­vel­op­ments in the Sul­tan­ate of Oman have gen­er­ally kept pace with leg­al de­vel­op­ments across the wider GCC. This is also true of the Oman Ar­bit­ra­tion Law. With the is­su­ance last year of the Rules...
Law-Now Dispute Resolution
22/12/2020
Law and reg­u­la­tion of Cov­id-19 loan morator­i­ums in Oman
1. De­scrip­tion of the le­gis­la­tion 1.1 Is there a morator­i­um on loans le­gis­la­tion im­ple­men­ted in your jur­is­dic­tion? Yes. 1.2 If no: Are there any on­go­ing dis­cus­sions re­gard­ing a po­ten­tial in­tro­duc­tion...
Expert Guide Banking & Finance
Comparable
02/07/2020
Own­er­ship of Lands and Real Es­tate Prop­er­ties by Non-Omani People
The Reg­u­la­tion for the Law Pro­hib­it­ing Own­er­ship of Lands and Real Es­tate Prop­er­ties by Non-Omanis in Cer­tain Places was re­cently is­sued pur­su­ant to Min­is­teri­al De­cision no. 292/2020 (the “Reg­u­la­tions”)...
Law-Now Real Estate
29/06/2020
Es­tab­lish­ment of the Oman In­vest­ment Au­thor­ity
Re­cently a new au­thor­ity named the “Oman In­vest­ment Au­thor­ity” (OIA) was es­tab­lished in the Sul­tan­ate of Oman by Sul­tani De­cree No. 61/2020 dated 4 June 2020. It was es­tab­lished to merge the two ex­ist­ing...
Law-Now Infrastructure & Projects
17/06/2020
Hold­ing Com­pan­ies in Oman
The new Omani Com­mer­cial Com­pan­ies Law (Roy­al De­cree No. 18/2019) (CCL) re­pealed the pre­vi­ous 1974 law and in­tro­duced a num­ber of changes that com­pan­ies had one year to com­ply with. One of the main changes...
Law-Now Corporate
11/06/2020
Pub­lic Es­tab­lish­ment for In­dus­tri­al Es­tates’ Re­cent De­cisions
Re­cently the Pub­lic Es­tab­lish­ment for In­dus­tri­al Es­tates (“PEIE”) is­sued two de­cisions. The first de­cision (De­cision No 168/2020) amended some pro­vi­sions of the reg­u­la­tion of tenders by PEIE and the...
Law-Now TMT - Technology, Media & Telecommunications
22/04/2020
LMA-Style Loan Agree­ments and COV­ID-19 in Oman
In the cur­rent un­pre­ced­en­ted times of COV­ID-19, with many busi­nesses shut down or with re­duced abil­ity to op­er­ate, sup­ply chains dis­rup­ted and little or no cus­tom­ers for many ser­vices and products, cash...
Law-Now COVID-19: The new normal?
Load more articles