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

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

3
GOVERNMENT -- 42
Privatizations -- 42
Regulatory -- 44
Law Reform -- 46
CONTACT -- 47

4
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.

5
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.

6
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.

7
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.

8
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.

9
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.

10
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.

11
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.

12
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.

13
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.

14
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.

15
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.

16
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.

17
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.

18
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.

19
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.

20
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.

21
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.

22
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.

23
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.

24
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.

25
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.

26
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.

27
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.

28
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.

29
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.

30
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.

31
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 “ GP ” 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: gen er al
partners; limited partners; pro moters; 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.

32
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.

33
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.

34
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.

35
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.

36
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.

37
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.

38
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.

39
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.

40
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.

41
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.

42
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.

43
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.

44
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.

45
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.

46
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.

47
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 careers@gelias.com.
G. Elias & Co.
(Solicitors and Advocates)
6 Broad Street
Lagos
Nigeria
Telephone: +2341 4607890; 2806970
Facsimile +2341 2806972
E-mail: gelias@gelias.com
URL: www.gelias.com

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

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

La actualidad más candente

La actualidad más candente (20)

Destacado

Destacado (20)

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

Similar a G. Elias & Co. - Firm Profile (May 2016) (20)

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