Prof. Dato’ Haji Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Shariff holds an LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the University of Singapore (1969) and an LL.M. from King’s College, University of London (1974). He is a Barrister-at-Law of Lincoln’s Inn, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and Fellow of the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators. He was called to the Malayan Bar in 1970 and to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Singapore in 1992.

His involvement in Islamic finance starts as early as 1983. He has acted as leading counsel in landmark cases in Islamic banking and finance.

He is a member of the Shariah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission, Malaysia and was a member of the Law Harmonisation Committee of Bank Negara Malaysia. He was a director of two Islamic banks in Malaysia for over 11 years. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). Among many other awards received by him, in July 2011, Lawyer Monthly, an international publication, has named Prof. Dato’ Ismail as a “Leading Lawyer 50, Islamic Finance 2011”, that is to say as one of 50 lawyers chosen from around the world as Leading Lawyers in Islamic Finance.