Bilal is a Non-Executive Director at Dome Advisory and is both a Shariah scholar and an Islamic finance lawyer. He received the ‘Zaki Badawi Shariah Scholar of the Year’ award at the 2011 London Sukuk Summit. Bilal is a core member of the global Working Committee of leading Takaful and Retakaful CEOs as well as various bodies and international think tanks of industry leaders. He chairs and speaks at all of the major international Islamic finance and related conferences across the world. Bilal specialises in structuring and drafting Shariah-compliant products in the medium of Arabic, English and Urdu. He has lectured on the undergraduate law programme at the Leeds Metropolitan University as well as on the Arabic and Urdu programmes at the University of Leeds. Bilal is currently co-authoring and editing a Legal Practitioners' Guide to Takaful & Retakaful and regularly contributes in industry journals and magazines. He will be joining the international law firm Simmons & Simmons from August 2012.

Bilal is a traditionally trained Shariah Scholar of Islamic Sciences, having completed the Dars Nizami program. This included all branches of Shariah law and related specialist disciplines as well as the languages of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. He has studied with many senior traditional scholars including the much revered Justice (R) Sheikh Taqi Usmani at Darul Uloom Karachi, Pakistan. Bilal read law with LLB (Hons) at the University of Leeds and completed his Legal Practice Course at BPP Law School. He completed an MA in Islamic Banking, Finance & Management with Distinction at the University of Gloucestershire and is presently undertaking an MBA in Legal Services at BPP Business School.
Bilal has regularly conducted specialist executive training programs and has organised bespoke in-house workshops for clients. He frequently chairs and speaks at international conferences, summits and round-tables. Some of his recent public speaking engagements are listed below:

• 8th Annual World Islamic Funds and Financial Markets Conference, Bahrain 2012 (panelist)

• Middle East Islamic Finance & Investments Conference, Dubai 2012 (panelist)

• World Takaful Conference, Dubai 2012 (panelist)

• Annual Middle East & Africa Insurance Summit, Dubai 2012 (chairperson)

• Oman First Islamic Finance & Banking Conference, Oman 2012 (speaker)

• LexisNexis Butterworths Islamic Finance Conference, London 2012 (speaker)

• 11th Annual Euromoney Islamic Finance Summit, London 2012 (speaker and panelist)

• International Islamic Banking and Finance Summit, London 2012 (chairperson)

• World Islamic Finance Conference, London 2012 (adviser, speaker and panelist)