The British-American Business Council
Chicago

CHAIRMAN

David N. Kay is Partner of the Chicago-based law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath. He concentrates his practice on international corporate transactions by advising U.S. companies and financial institutions on their overseas operations, with specific emphasis on England, the European Union, the Middle East, Australia and India. Mr. Kay also advises foreign companies and financial institutions establishing operations in the United States. He has traveled extensively and has lived and practiced law in England, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates where he was the resident partner of the Abu Dhabi office of a London-based law firm.

Mr. Kay is the Honorary Legal Advisor to the British Consul-General in Chicago and is a founding member, chairman and president of the BABC Chicago, also based in Chicago. He currently serves as President of the BABC global network.  Mr. Kay is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration and sits as an arbitrator on major international cases for the American Arbitration Association and the International Chamber of Commerce. He has written numerous articles and given speeches on the legal and commercial aspects of investment and doing business in Europe and the Middle East and has published a book titled "Trading with America, A Practical Guide."

Born in Hertford, England, Mr. Kay was called to the English bar as a Barrister in 1979 and was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1990. He received his B.A. honors degree in law from Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey in 1978 and thereafter studied at the Council of Legal Education and The School of Oriental and African Studies at London University. He studied Arabic at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1981 and obtained his Juris Doctor law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, Illinois, in 1989.

Mr. Kay is a member of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London, the Chicago Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Commercial Bar Association in England. He has Chambers at Hogarth Chambers, 5 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London.

In 2003 Mr. Kay was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in her Birthday Honors List in recognition of his services to British business interests and the British Community in the United States.
   
     


 

DAVID N. KAY OBE,
Partner
Drinker Biddle & Reath