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Brian Pierce joined Sullivan & Cromwell as an associate in 1998 and was resident in our Paris office until 2002, when he pursued a postgraduate degree at the Institut d Etudes Politiques (Paris) and completed a master s thesis on issues related to Islamic finance in 2003. Brian rejoined the Paris office in 2004 and has been resident in the London office since 2005. He was appointed Special Counsel-Middle East in January 2008. Brian s practice includes project development and finance, joint ventures and international corporate finance transactions, with a geographical focus on the Middle East (and in particular the Arab Gulf). His recent project finance experience in the Middle East includes the representation of Yemen LNG Company in the pending US$ 4 billion financing of its liquefied natural gas project in Yemen and of Emirates Aluminium Company in the US$ 7 billion financing of its aluminium smelter project in Abu Dhabi, the largest single commercial financing to date for any project in the Gulf (US$ 4.875 billion closed 2007; named EMEA Industry Deal of the Year by PFI and Middle East Manufacturing Deal of the Year by Euromoney Project Finance). Brian is proficient in spoken and written Arabic and spent considerable time in the Middle East before joining Sullivan & Cromwell as a student of Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, as a Fulbright Scholar in Amman, Jordan, and as a registered auditor at the Faculty of Law, University of Damascus. Brian is also fluent in French and has represented issuers and underwriters in a variety of private and public capital markets transactions in France and elsewhere in Europe. He has also advised on several cross-border merger and acquisition transactions throughout Europe across a range of sectors, including technology, finance and industry. | 