G. Elias & Co. - Firm Profile (May 2016)

GECO/TM/DOC/PROF/GE/17052016/Rev. 17

GECO/TM/DOC/PROF/GE/17052016/Rev. 17 2

CONTENTS

Page

PROFILE -- 4

APPROACH -- 5

LAWYERS -- 8

PRACTICES -- 13

Capital Markets -- 13

Corporate -- 15

Mergers and Acquisitions -- 15

Formations and Re-Organizations -- 18

Banking -- 20

Tax -- 23

Employment -- 24

Intellectual Property -- 25

Disputes -- 26

Foundation -- 26

Practices -- 27

Sectors -- 29

SECTORS -- 31

Financial Services -- 31

Oil and Gas -- 32

Electric Power -- 34

Real Estate -- 36

Telecommunications, Media and Technology -- 38

Trade and Industry -- 40

Transport and Logistics and Transport -- 41


GOVERNMENT -- 42

Privatizations -- 42

Regulatory -- 44

Law Reform -- 46

CONTACT -- 47


OUR PROFILE

We were founded in 1994 and have become one of Nigeria’s leading business law firms. We have always had an international outlook. We have a reputation for, and an outstanding record of, carrying out critical, innovative and complex work to the highest standards.

We have advised and represented our clients on several of the most significant recent developments in Nigerian business law practice.

We are organized as seven practices covering eight industry sectors. The practice groups are: dispute resolution; corporate (including mergers and acquisitions and private equity); banking; capital markets; tax; intellectual property; and employment.

The eight sectors are: financial services, oil-and-gas; electric power; telecommunications, media and technology; agribusiness, food and healthcare; trade and industry; transport and logistics; and construction and real estate (“fast moving consumer goods” occur in several of these sectors). There are clients of many nationalities and every size in these sectors.

They range from foremost global multinational enterprises to a number of ambitious, home-grown fledglings, from government-controlled enterprises (we have advised on numerous privatizations) to companies controlled entirely by private sector actors.

We have and maintain numerous contacts in Nigerian business and government circles, and with law firms and lawyers’ organizations based both in and outside Nigeria. We are a member of Africa Legal Network (ALN), an association of leading independent law firms founded and based in Africa.


APPROACH

We aim to do the most complex, critical and innovative work of serious business clients, whether the clients are young or old, local or international, famous or self-effacing, big or small. We have ISO 2008 Quality Policy Certification.

Our paramount aim is absolutely always to offer our clients service of the very highest quality. That means that we emphasize technical proficiency, attention to details and creativity in developing practical solutions to clients’ problems.

Achieving greater size is not in itself of central importance to our practice. We do not aim to be the largest law firm in size, and we do not necessarily prefer large clients to small ones. Our focus is on having lawyers who in number and skill are able to discharge with excellence the challenging tasks that we take on.

We are known for our sensitivity to clients’ business needs and concerns and promptness in responding to and executing their requests in dealing with business law assignments of every complexity, magnitude and novelty.

Every assignment that we take on is overseen by a partner who will be responsible for the quality of the service that we render and liaise regularly with the client on the progress of the work.

We strive to develop our young lawyers such that each of them will become, to at least some of our clients, both a general strategic counsellor and a specialist expert in one or more area(s) of our practice.

We realize that for most clients it is attractive as much as possible to have a single lawyer who will both master the business background to the full range of the client’s work and plans and have the technical competence to advise on more than one of the practice areas that are relevant to the client.

We therefore insist that each of our more experienced lawyers must have more than one technical specialty and not many clients to look after. In this way, we remain versatile without loss of depth or expertise.


It is also important to us that every client should receive excellent value for the fees we may charge, and that agreements with clients on both fees and expenses for any assignment be fully respected.

The vision is of a coherent unit of exceptional specialists advising ambitious business clients in every sector on their most challenging work to the highest standards and with versatility.

Our strategy is to grow only as quickly as by organic growth we can generate exceptionally-able lawyers who have the experience and temperament to be general partners to serve our clients and lead our growth.

We are also very much an independent business law practice led by a partnership into which associates who have served an “apprenticeship” with the practice may be admitted.

The bases for admission to the partnership are lawyerly ability and seniority rather than cash purchases of partnership shares or ‘rain- making’ prowess.

We are an orthodox professional partnership, slow to engage in lateral- hiring and committed to a “lockstep” system of recognizing our partners. Each of our partners is, and has always been, both a general partner and an equity partner.

From inception, we have been committed to searching for and hiring talented and motivated young lawyers and training them to become proficient, versatile and business-minded practitioners.

We always insist on ability, commitment and decency. Beyond these, we seek and encourage diversity in background and gender among our lawyers on the view that such diversity can only enrich our insights, outlook, experience and capacity for empathy with clients.


Each of our associates works regularly with a partner and gets frequent contact with clients. These features of our practice enable our associates to develop a capacity for responsibility far more quickly than would otherwise be possible.

A programme of training courses has been developed for all our lawyers. A wide range of the courses on areas that are at the core of our practice are conducted in-house by our own lawyers.

Our lawyers also attend both publicly-available and bespoke courses led by professional instructors from outside the firm both locally and abroad on other legal subjects and on non-law subjects such as basic accounting and investment banking.


LAWYERS

Fred Onuobia

The Managing Partner. LL.M (London); LL.B (University of Nigeria, Nsukka). Sometime proxime accessit among graduating students at the University of Nigeria’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar.

Segun Omoregie

LL.M (London); LL.B (Lagos State University). Sometime most generally- proficient graduating student at the Lagos State University’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. A Partner.

Fidelis Adewole

LL.B (Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma). Sometime most generally-proficient graduating student at that University’s law faculty. Civil Procedure and Criminal Procedure Papers Prize Winner at the Nigerian Law School. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; litigation. Sectors: trade and industry.

Onyinye Chukwu

LL.M (London) (with distinction); LL.B (Enugu State University). Sometime most generally proficient student at Enugu State University’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: capital markets; banking. Sector: electric power.

Steve Arubike

LL.B (University of Nigeria, Nsukka); graduated with First Class Honours at the Nigerian Law School. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: litigation; tax.

Abubakar Anafi

LL.B (University of Ilorin); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: litigation. Sectors: trade and industry.


Nosa Aguebor

LL.M (Stellenbosch) (with distinction); LL.B (Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; banking.

Uju Ifebunandu

LL.M (London); LL.B (University of Nigeria, Nsukka). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Group: corporate. Sector: financial services.

Toyin Nathaniel

LL.M (London) (with distinction); LL.B (University of Ilorin). Sometime most generally-proficient graduating student at the University of Ilorin’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Group: banking. Sectors: petroleum and telecommunications.

Lynda Chinweokwu

LL.B (University of Lagos); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Group: banking. Sector: real estate.

Alex Edoh

LL.B (Madonna University, Anambra State); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Nigeria Branch (ACI Arb). Groups: corporate; litigation. Sectors: trade and industry.

Okechukwu Okoro

LL.B (Ebonyi State University); Sometime most generally-proficient graduating student at Ebonyi State University’s law faculty. Groups: litigation; corporate. Sector: electric power.

Amaka Okoli

LL.B (Rivers State University of Science & Technology). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: capital markets. Sectors: financial services.


Solomon Ezike

LL.B (University of Calabar); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: litigation; capital markets.

Yemi Adeleke

LL.B (University of Lagos); sometime most proficient student in Oil and Gas Law at that University’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Group: banking. Sector: telecommunications.

Ebi Jikenghan

LL.B (University of Benin); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; litigation.

Chinedu Kema

LL.B (Imo State University); graduated with First Class Honours at the Nigerian Law School. Best Student prize winner at the Nigerian Law School. Groups: corporate; banking. Sectors: oil and gas

Yemisi Falade

LL.B (University of Ibadan); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: intellectual property. Sectors: real estate; telecommunications; media and technology.

Doris Dimoha

LL.B (University of Nigeria, Nsukka); Sometime most generally-proficient graduating student at University of Nigeria’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; intellectual property. Sectors: electric power.

Pelumi Asiwaju

LL.B. (University of Lagos); graduated with First Class Honours at the Nigerian Law School. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: banking. Sectors: real estate; electric power.


Kamoru Lawal

LL.B (University of Ibadan); graduated with First Class Honours from University of Ibadan’s law faculty. Most generally-proficient graduating student at that University’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Associate Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (ACTI). Practices: litigation; tax.

Blessing Okhiria

LL.B (University of Benin); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; capital markets.

Victor Green

LL.B. (Rivers State University of Science and Technology); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate. Sectors: oil and gas.

Gilbert Benson-Oladeinbo

LL.B. (Babcock University, Ogun State); graduated with First Class Honours from Babcock University’s law faculty. Sometime most generally-proficient graduating student at Babcock University’s law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; litigaiton.

Dayo Sanni

LL.B. (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: banking. Sectors: trade and industry.

Bibitayo Mimiko

LL.M (LSE); LL.B. (University of Warwick, Coventry); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate; banking.

Aishat Umar

LL.B (University of Liverpool). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate. Sectors: electric power.


Jane Iroagalachi

LL.B (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: banking. Sectors: electric power.

Chinyere Okafor

LL.B. (Abia State University). Sometime proxime accessite among graduating students at the Abia State University, Uturu law faculty. Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: banking, corporate. Sectors: electric power.

Marian Nicholas

LL.B (University of Benin). Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: litigation, corporate.

Ope Omoyeni

LL.B (Ekiti State University); overall best graduating law student. Member of

the Nigerian Bar. Groups: litigation; corporate.

Yinka Babafemi

LL.B (University of Lagos); Member of the Nigerian Bar. Groups: corporate;

banking.

Japhet Eneh

LL.B (Ebonyi State University); Overall best graduating law student. Member of the

Nigerian Bar. Groups: Corporate; Litigation.

Gbolahan Elias

MA BCL D.Phil. (Oxon.); sometime holder of the Oglethorpe and Underhill Exhibitions at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Junior Research Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; General Paper Prize Winner at the Nigerian Law School. Called to the Nigerian and New York Bars. Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Senior Advocate of Nigeria. A Partner.


PRACTICES

Capital Markets

We have been doing significant and groundbreaking work on capital markets activities advising both actual and potential issuers, managers, underwriters, trustees, trading platform developers and operators, and subscribers.

We have advised on both the largest equity and the largest debt offerings in Nigeria. The latter, for a statutory corporation, is by far the largest securities offering ever in Nigerian history.

The equity offering, for a pioneering bank holding company, was the largest ever equity offering in West Africa. The securities offered under it have been listed simultaneously on stock exchanges in three countries.

We have advised on several pioneering initial public offerings: for an oil- and-gas exploration and production company; a shipping company; a telecommunications company; an electric power producer; a hotel owner; and a lottery operator.

We have advised on numerous other equity offerings including rights offerings, offers for sale and offers for subscription . In many of them, the issuers have been financial institutions -- banks, underwriters and insurers -- seeking to strengthen their capital bases.

We have advised on SEC-regulated private placements to both local and foreign investors, two of them with “re-pricing” features, as well as on attempts by foreign issuers to offer securities to Nigerian investors.

We have also advised on three offerings of global depository receipt instruments by banks, on depository receipt programmes for three other listed companies, and on several private placements of equity securities by banks.

We have advised on numerous managed funds offerings including pioneering Islamic, sector-specific, money market and index-linked unit trusts, and on merging and restructuring unit trusts.

We have advised a leading bank on a pioneering Tier II capital Euro bond offering that was quoted on a European trading platform, and recently advised on another Tier II capital bond offering by a bank and a high-yield Eurobond by an oil-and-gas producer.


We have advised on a state bond offering that was the largest ever of its kind at the time, and we have advised on seven other state bond offerings. All of these bond offerings are for the development of infrastructure. All of them have been listed.

We have also advised on several bond offering programmes by non-bank corporate issuers. The programmes here include food and health care, real estate development, consumer durable manufacturers, conglomerates and other programmes.

For three non-bank issuers we have advised on convertible debt offerings - - two food producers and an equipment leasing company. We have also advised on pioneering commercial paper offerings by two bank issuers.

In the structured finance arena, perhaps our most significant work has been advising on a pioneering offering under a seminal residential mortgages master trust, the largest ever in sub-Saharan Africa.

Beyond that, we have advised on a pioneering “future flow” securitization, and on the second and third tranches of the master trust offering mentioned above and on a pioneering offering of debt instruments by a secondary mortgage institution.

One of the bank Tier II capital bond offerings and the bond offering programme by a conglomerate, both mentioned above, are also structured debt finance offerings.

We have advised on efforts to introduce prime brokerage and custodial arrangements to Nigeria, on the introduction of market makers and on the development of an over-the-counter securities market that has since become the largest market for debt instruments in the nation .

We have also been advising on “block sales”, on addressing settlement risks and on a stock exchange demutualization. We have also been active in advising issuers and their directors on new listings, delistings and on complying with share ownership disclosure regulations for regulatory filings and stock exchange purposes.

The volume of legal business in contentious work emerging out of securities offerings has been rising. We have been active in advising issuers, managers and underwriters on such disputes during investigations, in the regular court and before administrative tribunals.


Corporate

Mergers and Acquisitions

The very first transaction assignment of any kind that the firm ever advised on was the acquisition by the sale of shares of a then-moribund but later- thriving insurance company. Since then, we have advised on the largest- ever bank merger in Nigerian history, going by either the number of branches or balance sheet size.

We have also advised on the merger that has created what was at the time the largest Nigerian-controlled oil field service company. We have been vocal in advocacy for much-needed reforms of the law in the fields of mergers and acquisitions.

The mergers and acquisitions that we have advised on extend to virtually every sector of the economy -- investment banking, commercial banking, insurance, transport, oil, telecommunications, electricity, manufacturing, and healthcare.

We regularly advise both acquirers and targets on asset sales, share sales and mergers, in every case with the greatest sensitivity to clients' tax, regulatory, timing and other concerns.

We have advised six banks in six discrete groups of concluded pioneering transactions to take control of other banks. These transactions had a good deal of complexity and variety.

The deal structure has involved mergers by way of schemes of arrangement in five of the groups and a tender offer followed by a voluntary liquidation in the sixth group.

The banks in the six groups -- some twenty banks all told -- include the old and the young, the large and the small, the general and the specialized, the merchant and the commercial, the regional and the national, the foreign and the local.

We have also advised on the first-ever sale of a Nigerian “bridge” bank, on the acquisition by a Nigerian bank of a UK-based securities firm that is regulated by the UK authorities, and on acquisitions by two Nigerian companies of small UK companies that are critical to their operations.


We have also been active in advising on acquisitions of issuing houses, savings and loan companies, microfinance banks and registrars, and on insurance industry mergers. In the insurance sector, we have advised three leading acquirers and two separate targets in five discrete mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Two of these insurance industry transactions involved the spinning-off as separate entities of the life insurance businesses of composite insurance companies.

Differences among shareholders about valuation and shareholding arithmetic and undisclosed liabilities have emerged on a number of the foregoing mergers. We have advised on resolving them.

We have also advised on an attempt to acquire a controlling equity stake in a leading airline operator, on the acquisition of a controlling stake in a listed construction company, on the acquisition of a controlling interest in a listed seller of construction materials, and on the strategic merger of two diversified oilfield service companies.

We have advised on three management buyouts, all of them of non- financial businesses: of an electrical and electronics engineering company; of a ship-owning company; and of a leading manufacturer of paints.

In each of the management buyouts we represented the acquirer. The sellers of the electrical and paints businesses were and still are leading global multinational enterprises.

We have advised on the proposed sale by Nigerian investors of a controlling interest in a foreign downstream petroleum company, and on the completed acquisition of an independent upstream petroleum producer.

We have also advised on the acquisition of electric power generation and distribution companies by shares-purchases of controlling interests, and of a medical laboratory by the purchase of assets.


In the telecommunications sector, we have been advising on two, large separate sales of towers assets by leading GSM operators, in one case on the buyer side, in the other on the seller side.

Other acquisitions that we have counselled on include one by a provider of broadband telecommunications services to corporate clients, another by a provider of broadband telecommunications services to the public sector.

We have also advised a leading GSM operator on acquiring a fixed wireless operator and a provider of ISP services to corporate clients in two separate transactions.

Among the most significant corporate acquisitions that we have been working on are ascribed below under ‘Privatizations’. These acquisitions have involved hotels, insurers, electricity companies, banks, and manufacturers.

We have also advised on acquisitions by industrial companies, most recently on separate sales of controlling interests in manufacturers of construction materials, soap products, paint and industrial chemicals and an energy sector “turnkey” contractor.


Formations and Re-organizations

We have advised collaborators on joint ventures, both incorporated and unincorporated, and on establishing business organizations in a wide range of sectors of the economy. We also advise solo actors on founding new businesses.

We have advised on court-sanctioned schemes to reduce, re-organize and re-construct the capital of companies. Perhaps the most significant among them have been schemes to de-merge groups of companies.

We have also advised small and challenged conglomerates on regularizing their corporate filings and records and on rationalizing their intra-group shareholding structures.

Two foreign-controlled holding companies -- one a global multinational, the other a family-owned conglomerate parent -- have also engaged us to advise them on far-reaching reorganizations of their Nigerian businesses.

We have also done other significant work on strategic alliances between companies, shareholder agreements, management agreements, employee share incentive and assisted shares acquisition schemes and employment contracts for executive employees.

We have done extensive legal and corporate governance audit and litigation portfolio review work on conglomerates, petroleum companies, electricity distribution companies, telecommunications companies and financial institutions.

We advise both trade and financial investors on the company, financial, tax, labour, immigration, commercial and other legal aspects of foreign investment (both direct and indirect) into and divestment from all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

We have advised central stakeholders -- founding shareholders, their families and key employees -- in companies proposing to get listed on re- organizing to protect their interests in preparation for the time after listing.

We have been advising a strategic investor on taking minority equity stakes in independent power project developments and the sponsor of a mall development on selling a significant share of its stake to an institutional investor.


We have advised on establishing investment holding companies and special purpose companies in leading offshore jurisdictions, both in jurisdictions with double-tax treaties with Nigeria and in those with none, for the organization of such entities.

We advised on the largest spin-off ever in Nigerian history. It involved the spinning off of the non-bank businesses of a bank to its existing shareholders. Our other work on divestitures has involved spinning off parts of businesses in the food and transport sectors.

In one instance the de-merger was effected by spinning-off a subsidiary, in another it was by splitting-off a subsidiary, in each case to the existing shareholders of the parent.

We have also been advising a leading food sector operator on the complex formal de-merging of its hitherto-combined businesses into three: a farming business; a bakery business; and a quick-service restaurant business.

Different but not less complex has been our work on schemes to substitute bonds for significant equity shareholdings and to repair the damaged balance sheet of a conglomerate by eliminating negative revenue reserves.

We have advised on share ownership structures calculated to maximize the voting power of their sponsors and minimize both tax exposure and the ability to remit income and capital proceeds in foreign currency.

We have advised on voluntary, court-approved reductions of capital, on the liquidations of two local subsidiaries of a global multinational, on the liquidation of a subsidiary of a foreign bank, and on the liquidation of subsidiaries of two separate former bank holding companies.

We have advised insolvent companies on “working out” their debts to lenders and other creditors, and would-be acquirers of the core business assets of companies in liquidation.

We have advised on attempts to revive and “turn around” once- outstanding but recently-comatose and insolvent manufacturers of food products and electronic equipment as well as an oil marketer.


Banking

We have been involved in several of the largest and most creative and significant acquisition financing transactions in this area.

We have advised on share and asset acquisition financings and re- financings of telecommunications, electricity, manufacturing and hotel- owning companies as well as of interests in both upstream petroleum acreage and production.

A number of these financings have been very elaborately structured, with creative “forward sale” features, non-recourse lending elements, warranties and preferred equity features to facilitate a tax-efficient repatriation of proceeds in foreign currency.

We have advised the lenders on financing a pioneering airport hotel and conference centre development project as well as lenders to and sponsors of three separate shopping mall developments and other project finance transactions in the energy and transport sectors of the economy.

We advised the lenders to the nation’s pioneering “IPP” thermal electricity generation project. The sponsor to this project was a global multinational developer.

We have advised two leading local developers of thermal power generation facilities and are advising the lenders to the rehabilitation of an elaborate newsprint plant.

We have also advised the lenders to the development of a monorail project, the lenders to the nation’s pioneering toll road project, and the lenders to the development of the nation’s first privately-operated airport terminal for scheduled flights.

We have been advising both local and foreign financial institutions on novel hedging arrangements, repurchase transactions, securities lendings, forward sales, swaps and other derivatives transactions.


We have advised extensively on international standard form agreements for derivatives transactions -- for example, the ISDA, GMRA, GMSLA and CPMA forms -- and on how transactions made under them would stand in the event of the insolvency of one of the parties.

Our largest-ever bank lending transaction has been of a scheme to provide funding for the electricity, aviation and small and medium-size industry sectors. This transaction is also the largest bank lending ever by a Nigerian lender.

Outside acquisition, infrastructure and project financing, we advise frequently on important, varied and challenging bank credit transactions.

Not least among these have been several recent lendings by foreign development finance institutions and commercial banks to Nigerian banks to raise the foreign currency lending resources available to Nigerian banks.

We have advised on several large financings and re-financings of the operations of upstream oil-and-gas sector companies. Some of the borrowers have been owners of acreage. Others have been service contractors working with owners of acreage in return for shares of production.

We have worked regularly with the largest arrangers of credit to the Nigerian oil-and-gas sector on several of the largest and most complex lendings that they have made in recent years.

We have advised on restructurings and re-financings of loans to the oil-and- gas producers, service companies and downstream companies, to hospitality and real estate sector actors, and to manufacturers.

We have advised on a number of large and eclectic public sector credit transactions ranging from the large scheme mentioned at the beginning of this PART to financings of the purchase of motor cars by civil servants and to other financings to provide funding for farmers.

We have advised on what was at the time the largest single bank credit transaction ever by a Nigerian corporate borrower -- to a telephony operator, for network expansion.


We have advised on separate structured syndicated financings of equipment for the expansion of telecommunications networks for a fixed wireless access operator and two separate GSM operators and for a provider of facilities for co-location. In these last four telecommunications financing transactions, we advised the lenders.

We have advised investors on the options and mechanics open to both original parties and their successors for making foreign currency remittances on a wide range of investment and commercial transactions.

We have also advised on private placements of money market instruments, contracts to “sell-down” such instruments, participation notes and structured trade financings, all denominated in “hard currencies”.

The beneficiaries of these transactions to issue short and medium term notes have included commodity traders, manufacturers, hotel owners, oil producers, oil service companies and telecommunications operators.

We have also advised on finance leases of a variety of equipment, notably aircraft, marine vessels, fleets of motor vehicles and specialized data- gathering equipment for upstream oil-industry activities.


Tax

Many of our corporate, banking, securities and real estate transactions have been tax-driven, and we have done extensive contentious work for leading taxpayers.

We have advised extensively on whether or not for tax reasons to organize or re-organize entities as statutory corporations or as regular limited liability companies, partnerships or trusts.

We have advised leading foreign multinational enterprises, private equity and “special situations” investors on structuring both debt and equity investments in Nigerian companies.

Our other tax clients have included Nigerian groups of companies seeking corporate re-organizations to achieve greater tax efficiency and multilateral institutions seeking tax exemption certifications.

We have also advised on establishing and restructuring managed funds consisting of financial assets to achieve minimal tax exposure, and counselled unincorporated charitable organizations seeking juristic personality with tax-exempt status.

In every securitization transaction that we have advised on, developing innovative solutions to the tax challenges has been critical to the completion and success of the transactions.

We have advised real estate developers and other investors on structures to manage their exposure to capital gains tax, income tax, stamp duty and the diverse States (as distinct from Federal) taxes that would ordinarily burden their operations.

We have counselled several corporate taxpayers on informal attempts to resolve their differences with the authorities, usually in respect of withholding tax, pay-as-you-earn deductions and stamp duty.

We have also represented a number of the nation’s largest taxpayers and leading tax accountants in both informal administrative proceedings and in litigation in the courts at every level.


Employment

There are five principal dimensions our employment law practice: pensions; executive employment agreements; immigration; tax; and disputes.

We have advised extensively on independent consultancy and employment contracts for executive employees and full-time consultants (including director employees and officer employees who are not directors).

We advise on pensions regulation, on setting up and amending pension schemes, on establishing and operating employee share incentive schemes, and on life and other insurance arrangements for employees, officers and directors.

The issues that we have counselled on also include unionization and collective bargaining arrangements for “workers” and other employees especially in the context of mergers, acquisitions and corporate re- organizations.

We also advise on the employment regulation aspects of the sequelae of

mergers and acquisitions transactions. Among these are regulatory

approvals for “transfers” of employees and of the “secondment” of

expatriates.

We have also advised employers seeking or already with expatriate employees on compliance with regulations governing immigration, work permit, tax and foreign currency remittances.


Intellectual Property

We have extensive experience in various aspects of intellectual property work and have represented numerous local and international clients in prosecuting their intellectual property rights within and outside Nigeria.

We advise our clients on the commercialization of their intellectual property assets through the franchising, licensing and assignment of those assets, and on intellectual property issues arising in the course of mergers, acquisitions and corporate re-organizations.

We have assisted our clients in procuring the registration of their trademarks, patents and designs. We also handle matters arising after registration such as assignments, renewals, changes of name, changes of address and licensing of copyrights, trademarks, patents and designs.

We conduct “due diligence” inquiries on the title to and registration of intellectual property rights. We file and prosecute applications for the registration of transfer-of-technology contracts so that foreign currency remittances can be made on them from purchases at Central Bank auctions.

We belong to the Africa Legal Network, an association of first-tier independent law firms in Africa. This gives us a powerful platform to prosecute the registration and protection of intellectual property rights throughout the entire African continent.

We represent our clients on both prosecuting and defending trademark oppositions before the Nigerian Trademark authorities. We also represent clients in trademarks, patents and copyright litigation.


Disputes

Foundation

We advise on and represent clients in contentious matters with large claims, complex issues and novel points of law. Our proficiency in and commitment to advising and representing clients at the highest levels in these matters is unquestioned.

We regularly work on such matters as well as causes celebre and other critical and controversial disputes in a wide variety of fora in both criminal and civil proceedings. We do so in all of the main practice areas and sectors in which we do transactions and regulatory work.

We appear regularly before arbitral tribunals, in mediations, states and federal high courts, the Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and before administrative tribunals.

Many of the disputes that we work on have foreign elements. We have advised and represented foreign plaintiffs and foreign defendants, and our lawyers have opined as expert witnesses on Nigerian law in foreign fora.

In these disputes, we have advised on issues relating to issuing originating

papers by and against foreign parties, on serving papers on foreign parties

and on enforcing judgments, awards and orders against foreign parties.

The central element in our approach to dispute resolution is to focus relentlessly on achieving the client’s business objective to the extent that the law and the rules of professional ethics permit.

We pursue that objective by as early as possible developing a well-thought- through strategy for achieving it, creativity in proposing solution options, flexibility in realizing the strategy, rigour in researching both the facts and the law and speed in responding to changes and challenges.

In being flexible, tactics have ranged from getting claims against clients dismissed swiftly and summarily where it has been imperative and possible to do so through to recommending early out-of-court settlements where it was not prudent to do otherwise.

A number of the matters that we have been engaged for have included claims for potentially-ruinous interim and interlocutory injunctions. In very many cases we have been able to obtain the relief that our clients have sought from such injunctions.


Practices

We have represented a global multinational oil company taxpayer group in three important income tax cases. We represented leading tax accountants in appellate litigation over the tax powers of local governments under the Constitution.

We have successfully defended one of Nigeria’s oldest manufacturing groups in a dispute about the impact of value added tax legislation on intra-group transactions, and a hotel operator in another dispute about taxes at local government level.

We have advised on cases involving mergers, acquisitions and other struggles for the control of business enterprises and attempts to frustrate anticipated changes of control of businesses. We have represented sellers, buyers, targets and shareholders in these cases.

The cases have included attempts to unwind a privatization trade sale of an insurer as well as attempts to stop an impending acquisition of a bank, an airline company and a telephone company.

We have also been active in defending financial institutions against class- action claims, largely new to Nigerian practice, filed against them in the names of their customers in one instance and in the names of their employees in another.

On disputes arising from securities offerings, we have been involved in arbitral proceedings, in the courts and before arbitral tribunals. Some of the disputes have had only two parties. One of them had forty-three parties.

We have represented parties alleged to have violated securities regulations in disputes with the regulators. Our clients in these disputes include issuers, underwriters, registrars, managers of offerings and directors and officers of issuers.

We have also advised a variety of parties to civil claims relating to securities offerings: issuers against subscribers; issuers against disaffected shareholders and other stakeholders; subscribers against issuers; issuers against managers and underwriters; and managers and underwriters against issuers.


Several of the most topical issues in Nigerian securities law today have arisen in these disputes: what amounts to "false trading" and "market manipulation"; the extent to which issuers can give "financial assistance" to subscribers or repurchase issued securities; and the standard of proficiency required of managers and other capital markets operators.

We have always been active in representing commercial banks with large portfolios of banker-customer litigation disputes. The cases here have been wide-ranging.

At one end of the range have been routine, traditional banker-customer disputes over credit transactions. At the other end are a recent, novel class action filed against credit card issuers and an attempt to unwind derivatives transactions.

We have advised on disputes over credit transactions with large blocks of tradeable securities as collateral for the credit. In these cases we have represented creditors (both commercial banks and other financial institutions), debtors, issuers, custodians, and security agents and trustees.

We have also worked extensively on business insolvencies. Our clients in these contexts have included both creditors and debtors in situations ranging from workouts negotiated amicably out-of-court to acrimonious court litigation.

We have also represented creditors, shareholders and corporate institutions in disputes over attempts to re-organize the share capital of such institutions by seeking the approval of the courts and shareholders for schemes of arrangement.

On intellectual property, we have represented clients in seminal disputes over the extent to which “ideas” are protected by copyright law and improvements in telecommunications technology are protected by patents law.

Our other intellectual property work has extended to disputes on controversial issues such as the priority of competing registrations of the same trademark in the same class in favour of two separate applicants, and the extent to which the previous use of a trade design invalidates the registration of the design and court challenges to the validity of registrations of key patents.

Employers, most commonly financial institutions, have frequently engaged us to represent them in proceedings, often controversial and acrimonious, initiated or threatened against them by their former executive and other employees as well as their current and former chairmen and other directors.


Sectors

We have advised both claimants and defendants in a variety of arbitration proceedings in several sectors.

Among them are disputes over the bank financing of a real estate acquisition, the long-term hire of a fleet of marine vessels for the large- scale storage of refined petroleum products, an insurance claim for damage to oil pipelines, a dispute between a telecommunications company and its promotions consultants, and on banking-related services.

To the best of our knowledge, the dispute on hiring marine vessels involves the largest-ever shipping law claim in the nation’s history, and one of the largest arbitration claims ever.

We are defending a global manufacturer of consumer products in the largest, most complex and most far-reaching series of products liability cases in Nigerian history, and potentially fatal to its Nigerian operations. To the best of our knowledge the series of cases has the highest aggregate money claims in Nigerian history.

We are counsel to another global manufacturer of consumer products on what will be seminal litigation on the law governing the regulation of marketing campaigns for such products.

A good deal of the shipping litigation that we have been involved in is about hitherto-unresolved points of law involving issues such as the extent of admiralty jurisdiction over inland creeks, charterparties, and the classification as “marine vessels” or otherwise of movable machines operating in marine environments.

Our other significant shipping cases have been the large arbitration mentioned four paragraphs ago, and about controversial issues of marine insurance subrogation, cargo claim limitation periods, the liability of ships’ agents, the frustration of charterparties by communal violence and the Nigerian Ports Authority’s immunities from suit.

Among our successful defence litigation campaigns is one for Nigeria’s largest dredging company in a dispute over one of the most politically- sensitive Government dredging contracts ever awarded.


We have represented clients in construction-related disputes. Two of these have involved a factory for manufacturing plastic products and petroleum product storage facilities respectively.

In other cases we have represented real estate developers who were ultimately successful in dismissing and replacing recalcitrant contractors, and in disputes over title to project sites and other town-size tracts of land.

We also represent telecommunications sector investors and operators in disputes ranging from one involving neighbours resentful of mast installations to others arising out of interconnection agreements between operators and large failures of delivery under contracts with a major supplier.

We have advised financial institutions, telecommunications companies and producers of goods and services for consumers in a wide range of disputes on the law relating to marketing and advertisers.

Many of these disputes have been against their media, advertising and other brand development advisers, contractors and service providers. Some of the disputes have been against regulatory agencies at both the Federal and States levels.


SECTORS

Financial Services

We advise regularly banks, specialized lenders, pension fund administrators, capital markets operators, insurance companies and private equity fund managers and investors.

Much of our significant work for these financial services firms has been covered under the “Practice” rubrics “Corporate”, “Capital Markets” and “Lending”. No useful purpose would be served by repeating them here. Only our private equity work calls for extended mention here.

For more than a decade, we have worked with several of the most active private equity general partners (“GPs”) in Nigeria on some of their most significant transactions.

One of the most notable of these has been an investment by a private equity “ G P ” firm and several vehicles controlled by wealthy individuals in what has now become Nigeria’s largest telephone company.

That investment, made at the start-up stage and with both debt and equity features, is widely regarded as the single most successful private equity investment in Nigerian history.

Since that investment, we have advised a wide range of parties to both “impact” and classic private equity investment transactions: g e n e r a l p a r t n e r s ; l i m i t e d p a r t n e r s ; p r o m o t e r s ; investee companies; founders; and lenders.

We have advised on these equity investments in a wide range of sectors of the economy: manufacturing; telecommunications; electronic payments; oil service; hotels; electric power generation; real estate; insurance; microfinance; healthcare; banking; and food products.

We have advised on “GP” vehicle formation, on fund formation, on early stage equity investments and on later stage equity investments.

We have also advised on exits by private sales, initial public offerings and by listings, on mergers and acquisitions, on debt investments (sometimes by way of loans, at other times by subscribing to debt offerings) and on disputes over issues that have become contentious.


Oil-and-Gas

From inception, we have been active in a wide range of work relating to the oil-and-gas sector.

We have advised on several agreements for acreage acquisition involving multi-party participation in the development of oil-and-gas acreage (“farm-in”, joint venture, participation, “carried interest”, “production sharing” and “joint operating” agreements), for solo developers to acquire such acreage and on the financings of such acquisitions.

We have also advised on the acquisition of project sites, on contracts between oil sector actors and communities resident on or near project sites and on litigation over project sites, and advised on agreements between oil producers and their “host communities”.

Our most significant contentious work has included not only such land cases in the courts and environmental litigation but also trial court cases in marine contexts and seminal appellate cases on tax, as well as leading disputes on the shipping and tax aspects of oil-and-gas law before arbitral and administrative tribunals.

We have also advised on significant corporate transactions such as a merger of upstream oil and gas companies, a major merger of oilfield service companies and a spin-off of a service company’s non-core assets and on bids for acreage offered for sale by international oil companies.


We have advised on major upstream non-recourse project financings, on the non-recourse financing of a gas utilization project and on syndicated note issuance facilities to finance upstream production operations. We have also advised on a large high-yield Eurobond financing and on the largest refinancings of downstream petroleum indebtedness in the nation.

Securities firms have engaged us to advise on private placements of equity and long-term debt securities by upstream production companies and on the pioneering initial public offering of securities by upstream and downstream companies.

We advise regularly on shareholder agreements for companies doing various aspects of oil-and-gas work. We have also advised on privatizations of petrochemicals, oil service and oil marketing companies.

Our regulatory work includes not only fairly routine bids for oil service sector licences and licences to establish tank farms but also uncommon applications for Free Trade Zone status for land and to operate private ports for oil and gas activities.

The commercial agreements that we have advised on include throughput agreements for tank farms, sales of electricity and petroleum products, for offshore support services from shorebase operators, for the construction of various facilities and for the use of a variety of marine vessels.


Electric Power

In the rapidly-growing electricity sector, some of our most significant work has involved advising recently-successful bidders for key parts of the old, government-owned electricity monopoly: one generation company and two of the nations’ largest distribution companies.

We also advised two bidders for generation assets owned by both the Federation and the States but held outside the old, government-owned electricity monopoly. No less significant has been our work, now completed, advising the newly- formed, Federal Government-backed single buyer of grid electric power.

We worked with that single buyer on negotiating power purchase contracts and vesting contracts, on its payment support package options and on the various gas, privatization and transmission contracts that are likely to impact its proposed operations.

It is by far the largest buyer and seller of electric power in the nation. It is central to the ongoing programme to reform, privatize and commercialize the electricity sector.

We have been advising on regulatory issues including obtaining generation licences, the licensing of independent electricity distribution networks; and differential pricing for different categories of end users of “embedded power”;

We have also advised on pioneering project financings for lenders to an independent power producer, to a joint venture between a state government and a private operator respectively and on leading acquisitions financings for both generation and distribution companies.


We have also advised on the acquisition of a private power producer and on a sector-first private placement of shares by an electric power producer with plans to get listed.

We have advised a prospective strategic investor on a combination of debt and equity investments in a series of small independent power projects and litigation over the award of a “BOT” contract award for a huge hydro- electric power project.

We are advising developers of both thermal and renewable power on projects to generate such power for sale to the grid. Our work for two of these developers is on projects located outside Nigeria, one of them perhaps the largest-ever thermal electric power project in Africa.

We have also been advising in a separate project two ambitious but new- to-industry generators of thermal electric power who propose to sell electricity primarily to off-grid industrial buyers. One of them is backed by a leading global multinational manufacturer of thermal generation equipment.

We have also advised on the acquisition of controlling equity stakes in two grid distribution companies and two grid thermal generation companies, and are advising on the sale of a controlling interest in an off- grid thermal generation company.

We have also advised on critical commercial contracts in the electricity sector, most notably power purchase, gas sales, technical assistance and engineering, procurement and construction contracts.


Real Estate

We have a strong and respected real estate practice that is known for its breadth, sophistication and depth. We work in all of the principal sub- sectors of the real estate sector: retail; hospitality; office buildings; logistics assets; and residential property.

We advise and represent a wide range of actors, mainly developers, private equity fund managers, landowners, equity investors and lenders, but also contractors, consultants, buyers and commercial tenants.

In each of the sub-sectors we have advised on acquisitions and disposals of both isolated assets (notably Nigeria’s largest hotel) and portfolios of assets, and of both strategic minority equity stakes and of controlling interests.

Clients who ordinarily are not real estate sector actors have also engaged us on critical real estate matters. Notable among these are commercial clients acquiring and constructing offices, showrooms, outlets and factories nationwide.

Our real estate group lawyers also work regularly with parties to mergers acquisitions and spin-off transactions in other sectors on occasions where real estate assets happen to be a significant portion of the assets in issue.

We have expertise in structuring transactions to optimize the regulatory, tax, corporate and foreign investment law situations of our clients with a view to minimizing expense, delay and inconvenience.

We have also worked extensively on commercial bank credit transactions to finance acquisitions and construction, and on the refinancing of such transactions.


Among other regulatory work, we are experienced in the subtleties of the perfection of title and collateral, “regularizations” of title, of buying and selling diplomatic mission assets, of re-zoning, of compulsory acquisitions and excisions, of getting “NOTAP” approval, and in getting waivers, exemptions and reductions of tax.

We have negotiated and documented shareholder agreements, joint venture agreements, development leases and other arrangements to develop real estate assets on a collaborative basis.

The standard capital markets dimension to our work has included advising on corporate bonds issued by developers. More exotic transactions have included Nigeria’s pioneering offerings of residential mortgage trust securities and of bonds issued by a State-backed secondary mortgage lender.

The commercial agreements that we work on regularly include engineering and construction contracts, and project contracts, development and operations management agreements, and leases to tenants.

We advise and represent clients in major disputes involving land and construction activities in courts at all levels (including the Supreme Court of Nigeria) and in arbitration.

The disputes that we have handled have extended from critical ones involving injunctions over project sites that needed to be vacated promptly to decades-long-disputes over title to extensive assets that originally belonged to old families.


Telecommunications, Media and Technology

We advised on a seminal private sector investment in the telecommunications sector that is widely acknowledged to be the most successful ever in that sector: the initial investment by Nigerian investors and a private equity firm in what has become Nigeria’s largest GSM operator.

We have advised on bids for, renewals of and re-validations of telecommunications licences, on waivers for infractions of the terms of licences, on getting regulatory consent to assignments of and charges over the licences, and of the regulation of electronic payment services and “bitcoins”.

We have advised on co-location, technical services and management agreements, agreements to lease lines and ducts, and the regulation and perfection of rights of way over and under the surface of land.

We have advised on joint ventures to provide telecommunications services, on mergers and acquisitions of telecommunications operators (including a management buyout), and on bids for and sales of tower assets.

Perhaps our most notable mergers and acquisitions transactions in the sector have been the privatization trade sale of the old government nationwide telecommunications monopoly and the largest sale of tower assets in Nigerian history, by a GSM operator.


We have advised on the first-ever Nigerian initial public offering of shares in the telecommunications sector (an exit by private equity investors), and on major acquisition, rehabilitation and growth financings.

These include a network expansion financing that was at the time the largest bank credit ever made in the sector, sales-and-leasebacks of tower assets and guarantees of bank loans by multilateral institutions.

We have also advised on print production, publishing and advertising contracts and regulation, on contracts to develop and manage artistes, and on agreements to produce, finance and distribute motion pictures. We have also advised on establishing and structuring companies and limited partnerships to invest in these sectors.

On all of the foregoing areas, and on computer software and hardware, we have advised on the creation, protection, regulation and licensing of trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property rights, and have represented clients in a wide range of disputes in courts and in arbitration.

With regard to computer software and hardware, we have also advised on distribution agreements, technical support and service level agreements, sales and leaseback and other financings, strategic investments and private equity investments.


Trade and Industry

We practice in several sub-sectors of the trade and industry sector: food and beverages; healthcare and hygiene; and a variety of fast-moving and durable consumer goods.

We work frequently with Federal and States-level regulators of these sub- sectors on the registration of products, labels, manufacturers and distributors, changes to such registration, and on advisory matters.

In these sectors, we have advised on joint venture, franchising and marketing agreements for the production and distribution of branded food products, the licensing of brands and other intellectual property rights, on tolling agreements for processing raw food products, technical assistance and other transfer-of-technology agreements, and agreements for the sale and distribution of goods.

We have also advised on mergers, acquisitions, reconstruction, spin-offs and

other re-organisation of companies in food, beverages and healthcare

companies, and of foreign direct investment in such companies.

We also advised on private placements, offers for subscription, rights

offerings, plain bond offerings, bond programmes and offerings of asset-

backed securities by issuers in the subsectors.

We also represent parties in court litigation, arbitral proceedings and administrative tribunal hearings by and against our clients in the sub- sectors. The other parties have included their suppliers, competitors and customers.

We have advised both lenders and borrowers in the sub-sectors on acquisition, project and working capital bank financing.


Transport and Logistics

We have advised leading shipping, aviation, land transport and logistics actors, including manufacturers and distributors of motor vehicles and operators of warehouses and trucks.

We have also done significant pioneering work on the limited recourse financing of transport sector infrastructure: the first Nigerian toll road; and the first Nigerian privately-operated airport terminal.

We have also advised on the project and bond financings of ports destination inspection equipment, on the financing and construction of airport facilities, roads, flyovers and bridges, and the provision of working capital for distributors of motor vehicles.

We have also done extensive work on potentially-transformative projects, including two that are currently stalled, to develop a monorail and operate port and marine logistics facilities for the oil-and-gas sector.


GOVERNMENT

Privatizations

We have advised underwriters, trade buyers and sellers on a wide range of privatization transactions and on litigation over such transactions.

We have advised the Government-controlled “resolution” company -- the managers and custodians of “toxic” bank assets -- on the first-ever sale of a now-thriving commercial bank that was originally organized as a “bridge” bank.

We were the Federal Government's legal advisers on the controversial and highly-complex privatizations of two enterprises with tortuous histories: the Government-owned insurer; and the Hilton hotel in the Federal Capital.

The former was prior to privatization Nigeria’s most asset-rich conglomerate. In its post-privatization form, it remained a substantial conglomerate although a number of its erstwhile-largest subsidiaries have been privatized separately.

The assets and liabilities relating to the Hilton hotel business were spread among three limited liability companies and a statutory corporation. Disentangling them presented numerous challenges.

Each of the hotel business and the insurer was at the time the largest in its industry in the country. The sale of the Hilton hotel is one of the largest- ever trade sale privatizations.

We also advised the Federal Government on the privatizing by private placement of its stakes in eleven oil service companies. Many of these companies were local affiliates of global multinationals.


More recently we have advised purchasers of a large electric power thermal generation company of the largest distribution company by population and of the largest distribution company by geographical area covered. We are advising a prospective buyer of the assets of the old telecommunications monopoly.

We have advised an investment holding company owned by five states governments on the restructuring with a view to privatization of companies and other investments in a diversified and controversial group owned by the states.

The group then comprised thirteen subsidiaries, vast real estate holdings and investments in dozens of other companies all ultimately vested in a parent holding company.

On the “buyers’” side, we advised joint bidders for the Federal Government’s stake in one of the country’s oldest banks, the then winning bidder on the privatization of a leading manufacturer of fertilizers and the largest newsprint manufacturer in West Africa.

This last is to date one of the largest trade sale privatization contracts ever signed. The offer for sale for the hotel-owning company referred to above under ‘Securities’ is a privatization assignment.

We also advised the Federal Government's privatization agency on rewriting the statute and regulations governing the nation's inland waterways with a view to privatizing some of the operations of the inland waterways regulatory authority.


Regulatory

We regularly advise on, file and prosecute applications for the protection of owners and licensees of trademarks and patents.

Our other regulatory work has included filings for securities offerings, filings by foreign investors, quests for transfer-of-technology approvals and campaigns for exemptions from zoning regulations pertaining to land.

We have advised on applications for tax, immunity, corporate status and other privileges for multilateral lending institutions seeking to operate in Nigeria and diplomatic missions acquiring real estate assets in Nigeria.

Perhaps our most original regulatory work has been in advising on quests for tax-free zone status and the development of regulations for the management and operation of free zones, and on bids for much-coveted oil acreage and telecommunications licences.

Also original is our work in seeking permits for the development and operation of privately operated ports and in establishing a framework for co-operation between a private port owner and operator and the port regulatory authorities.

In the telecommunications arena, we have been working extensively on advising major operators on the impact of the new regimes of rules on interconnection and unified licensing, and on assignments of electromagnetic spectrum.

We have also done significant work in structuring and prosecuting applications for operators’ licences from the National Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Petroleum Resources.

Other areas in which we regularly do non-contentious regulatory work include applications for tax registration and tax relief and exemptions, and applications for the registration of patents, trademarks and designs.


We have been advising private investors on getting excisions of land areas from compulsory acquisition schemes by both Federal and State authorities and fresh grants out of land previously acquired by governmental authorities.

We have also been active in prosecuting applications for the registration (primarily for the purpose of allowing the remittance of fees in hard currencies) of transfer-of-technology agreements with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion.

We have been active in contentious work before regulatory bodies such as the Trade Marks Registrar, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Corporate Affairs Commission, the National Insurance Commission, the Tax Commissioners and the lotteries regulator.

We have represented clients being investigated or challenged by supervisory bodies in proceedings before tribunals of inquiry. We have also advised and represented clients on a wide range of matters that have come to the floor and before the committees of the National Assembly.

Among these matters are the preparation and prosecution of Bills, the “laying” of orders before the National Assembly for approval, investigations of topical subjects by the National Assembly and efforts by the National Assembly to intervene to resolve disputes in the public eye.

We have also advised multilateral financial organizations on prosecuting applications for the immunities and privileges that the charters forming them and applicable Nigerian law both provide for.

A number of regulators of businesses have also engaged us from time to time to draw up and advise on both primary and secondary legislation applicable to the businesses that they are mandated to regulate. We have from time to time commented on draft regulations on key areas of interest to our clients.

We have advised on several efforts to develop much-needed new legislation, particularly in respect of the transport sector, land mortgages, trusts, petroleum, and dispute resolution.


Law Reform

Our lawyers have long been active in advocacy for law reform. They have served on Federal Committees for the reform of oil-and-gas, pension and securitization law, and on the establishment of a commercial regulator for the shipping industry.

They have also served on State Committees to reform arbitration and trusts law and for the re-compilation of all of the statutes of Lagos State, the nation’s commercial capital.

They have also worked on developing new legislation on residential mortgages and foreclosure, mortgage institutions, and on the regulation of both ocean shipping and inland waterways shipping.

Our lawyers prepared papers for and have been invited to sessions of the National Assembly on such new legislation. They have also published extensively on new statutes on foreign investment, port reform, privatization, insurance, cabotage and mergers and acquisitions law.


CONTACT

Not all of the areas in which we have experience and expertise are indicated in the foregoing pages.

You may contact us for fuller statements of our capabilities in any given area of law or practice, whether mentioned in the foregoing pages or not.

Inquiries on any subject should be directed to Fred Onuobia (Managing Partner), Segun Omoregie or Gbolahan Elias.

If you are thinking of a career with us, please study Approach above and write to [email protected].

G. Elias & Co. (Solicitors and Advocates) 6 Broad Street Lagos Nigeria

Telephone: +2341 4607890; 2806970 Facsimile +2341 2806972 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.gelias.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.gelias.com/

Documents

G. Elias & Co. - Firm Profile (May 2016)