Dr. Denis Roumestan has been practicing as a bilingual (English/French) and bijural (Common Law/civil law) Attorney for more than 43 years in North America, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa.
As a Canadian international business lawyer, Dr. Roumestan was very instrumental in the restructuring of the Rwandan banking sector. In collaboration with NATIONAL BANK OF RWANDA, Dr. Roumestan was the lead consultant in several important files, such as the restructuring of (a) BACAR, (b) of BCDI and its purchase by ECOBANK, (c) of URWEGO and its agreement with OPPORTUNITY BANK, (d) of BANQUE POPULAIRE DU RWANDA into a commercial bank and the purchase of part of its capital by RABO BANK (NL), among others. He was also the first to draft a syndicated loan agreement in Rwanda.
As a Senior International Consultant, Dr. Roumestan designed and set up the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD) in Nyanza, of which he was the first interim Director. He led several USAID funded projects in Rwanda to improve the legislative process, train Deputies, Senators and Government staff on legislative drafting, and to provide an assessment report and a compendium on the HIV/AIDS legal framework. He was also the Chief of Party of a 10-million USAID funded Tetra Tech project (Capacity Building for Responsible Minerals Source – CBRMT) aimed at formalizing artisanal mining in Eastern DR Congo in collaboration with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). He also assisted Justice & Equity, a Canadian foundation, in its fight against human trafficking in DR Congo, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal and Ghana.
With a Ph.D. in Law and a B.A. in History, Dr. Roumestan has been lecturing and directing research papers in universities in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has also set up the Center for Comparative Law in Africa with the Faculty of Law of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Dr. Roumestan is now Senior International Consultant with MRB Attorneys.