About

Karl Rogers is one of the most respected general counsel in the Middle East, as well as being one of the leading structured finance and derivatives specialists in the in-house legal community globally. Keen to share his considerable expertise for the benefit of the profession as a whole, Rogers is the Chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Middle East Committee and a member of the DIFC Courts’ General Counsel Forum, a testament to the esteem in which he is held by the financial world. He has also recently been appointed to the Legislative Committee of the Dubai International Financial Centre. He recalls that he acquired his passion for banking on secondment to a trading house in the USA while practicing with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in the 1990s: ‘at the time, the firm I was seconded to was particularly innovative and at the leading edge of the development of the derivatives market, and the experience of working in that environment really gave me the holistic commercial experience that led to the desire to work in house’. He moved to an in-house role shortly after this, establishing a team of structured product lawyers at a global investment bank in London and, apart from a successful period as an equity partner with Norton Rose in Dubai some years later, has worked with banking organisations ever since. At Standard Chartered (one of his former clients when at Norton Rose) for the last seven years, Rogers is General Counsel for Africa and Middle East. Based in Dubai, Rogers has a team of around 90 individuals reporting to him across the Bank’s extensive coverage of the region. As for why he moved to the Middle East and enjoys working in this region and Africa, Rogers is clear: ‘In Africa and the Middle East there are a lot of challenges, a lot of excitement and a huge opportunity for adding value. I am fortunate to work with a very talented and diverse group of people who are colleagues and friends and the appreciation we have; for each other, our respective cultures and the important role we play not just for the bank but for the communities we are present in allows us to collectively gain energy and drive from working together’. Rogers is highly optimistic about the change he and others in financial institutions can make to the Middle East and Africa. ‘I have always wanted to come in and make a real difference when I take on a role’, he explains, ‘and if banks can appropriately balance serving their clients and supporting the communities in which they operate, they can really assist in developing a country’s financial system and economy’. Rogers continues to enjoy the collective business goals of working as an in-house lawyer: ‘When I was in partnership, we had a great bunch of lawyers many of whom are still good friends but inevitably everyone is judged by their own profitability. In a bank or other in-house role, you can sit there with the head trader, CEO or even the head of IT, and can get your heads together to work out how to solve problems for the good of the whole organisation, whether related to an individual transaction, general process or fund raising for a worthy cause such as Seeing is Believing, Standard Chartered’s drive to alleviate curable blindness.’