CORE AREAS OF PRACTICE
Comprehending our clients' business environments and strategic objectives is essential for delivering top-tier legal services. Our legal experts specialize in both industry sectors and practice areas to maximize effectiveness.
As aforementioned, the Firm has contributed significantly to the development of law in Zambia in the form, inter alia, of precedent handed down by the Supreme Court of Zambia in respect of matters argued by the Firm. To this end, the Firm has over the years successfully
litigated numerous matters that have defined not only the law, but also the practice of law in Zambia.
The Firm provides transactional advice and interest representation services to key players in the corporate sector. Additionally the Firm advises numerous international clients on matters relating to the conduct of business in Zambia including, but not limited to, advice on recent trends towards Public-Private Sector co-operation in relation to ‘Build, Operate and Transfer’ type agreements and other forms of agreement.
The Firm has advised on complex commercial transactions in all sectors including construction and infrastructure, agriculture, finance, mining and natural resources and telecommunications.
Amongst the legal services the Firm provides are corporate advisory services in respect of company formation, mergers and acquisitions, winding up, share transfers, joint ventures, corporate financing as well as company secretarial services and advice.
In addition to providing general advice to several local and international banks and other, non banking, financial institutions, the Firm has adopted a ‘hands on’ approach towards the services it provides to this sector. In this regard, the Firm is keenly involved in the end to end processes and procedures undertaken by its clients during the provision of debt financing and general financial services by them to their retail and commercial customers and as such is capable of offering legal support at all levels (from complex structured financing arrangements to not so complex personal loan arrangements) including the preparation and perfection of transactional and security documentation
The Firm has worked closely with numerous clients, including recently the Central Bank, in handling matters of corporate insolvency. The Firm’s experience in this regard extends from providing legal advice to the liquidators and receivers/receiver managers of insolvent or financially stressed companies (including providing legal advice to the entities appointing such liquidators and receivers/receiver managers where appropriate) to conducting litigation on their behalf.
Additionally, the Firm undertakes debt collection work on behalf of several of its clients, local and international.
The Firm has, among the matters over which it has conduct, a vast number of employment, labour and pension matters. Additionally, the Firm takes a pro active approach to the prevention of unnecessary employment and labour disputes by providing advice to its clients at a strategic level. Thus, the Firm routinely provides input and advice to clients around their conditions of service; disciplinary, grievance and capability codes; collective bargaining agreements; contracts of employment; policies and guidelines ; occupational pension schemes and, on an ad hoc basis, around specific cases that have the potential to cause the client reputation and financial loss and/or injury.
The Firm has got significant experience with project work and the specialised forms of contract used in the construction industry, including, but not limited to, the FIDC forms of contract and the JBCC (South Africa) standard form contract and is keenly aware of the dispute resolution mechanisms adopted in the industry. This has extended to the firm delving into offering legal assessment on hazardous waste and chemicals.
A growing area of practice is commercial arbitration (including international commercial arbitration) and the Firm has observed a marked increase in the number of matters being referred to it in this regard.
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, the firm routinely takes up public interest litigation in as deliberate effort to contribute to the enrichment of the Zambia’s jurisprudence. Among the significant cases taken on by the firm in the recent past include litigation relating to the Public Order Act in which the Court was asked to, inter alia, interpret that piece of legislation in the context of the freedoms guaranteed to individuals under the Constitution of the Land and in light of the democratic tenets that the Nation has embraced.
