Richard Balenzi holds a First-Class Masters in Corporate and Finance Law from the University of Glasgow (UK). He also holds a BA Honours in Law with French from the University of Nottingham (UK) in conjunction with the Universite de Nantes (France) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre (Uganda).

Richard joined Trust Law Chambers in 2008 and was seconded to Dentons LLP UK in 2012 where he was involved in Banking and Finance transactions.

He specializes in Banking & Finance and Capital Markets.

Richard has been ranked by IFLR1000as a “Highly Regarded” lawyer and by Chambers & Partners Global as a Band 2 Attorney who is “trusted to handle complex financial transactions”.

He has led several groundbreaking banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, and capital markets transactions in Rwanda. He also advises on corporate law, employment law and general commercial law matters. In the academic domain, Richard has taught business law to Association of Chartered Certified Accountants(ACCA) students at The College of Business. He also writes a monthly legal column for The New Times.

Richard is a member of the Rwanda Bar Association. He was formerly the Chairman of the Board of AB Bank (Rwanda) Ltd and is a Swedish Institute of Management Program Fellow, 2016 cohort.

He is a native speaker of Kinyarwanda and is fluent in English, French and Swahili.