Mr. A. Zen Umar Purba joined ABNR in 1986. The holder of an LL.M degree from Harvard Law School, Mr Purba is a law graduate of Universitas  Indonesia and a professor at its Faculty of Law, teaching inter alia International Business Transactions and Intellectual  Property Rights (“IPR”). From 1999 to 2002 he was Director General of Intellectual Property Rights of the Indonesian Department (Ministry) of Justice and Human Rights, and was the Chairman of the Indonesian Capital Market Arbitration Board (“BAPMI”) in the years 2002 to 2005. He was also a member of the Experts Team of the Attorney’s General Office.  Mr Purba was in the past also a law editor for Tempo, the leading Indonesian news magazine, as well as a member of the legal drafting teams of a number of government departments and ministries, including the State Ministry for Population and Environment, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Capital Market Supervisory Board, The Ministry of Justice, and the National Planning Board.

He received a certificate of appreciation from the President of the Republic of Indonesia in his role as “IPR Development Figure” on the World IP Day 2007. Also an avid writer, he wrote 2 books on IPR: Hak Kekayaan Intellectual Pasca TRIPs (IPR in the Post-TRIPs Era) (2005) and Perjanjian TRIPS dan Beberapa Isu Strategis (The TRIPS Agreement and Some Strategic Issues) (2011), in addition to numerous academic articles on a variety of topics. Now an Of Counsel of this firm, Mr. Purba continues to work with the Partners in attending to client matters in the field of capital market, corporate law, environmental law and IPR.

At present Mr Purba is an arbitrator of the Indonesian National Arbitration Board (BANI), the Futures Commodity Trading Arbitration Board  (BAKTI), the capital Market Arbitration Board (BAPMI)  and the Intellectual Property Arbitration Board (BAM-HKI). He is also the current Chairman of the ABNR Foundation.