The firm represents a wide range of local and international clients in courts (trial and appellate) and tribunals across Nigeria, as well as in arbitration and other dispute resolution proceedings. We represent clients with the aim of minimising the disruptive impact of litigation and maximising the chances of a successful outcome. While maintaining a strong litigation stance, we are also open to seeking the resolution of disputes through means alternative to litigation where it will save time and resources.
Our litigation practice affords our clients passionate advocacy infused with our commercial nous to ensure an unwavering focus on business value. Our clients can rest assured that we always aim to first identify the key issues and then approach them as required with a view to keeping cost low and avoiding wild goose chases.
Our Maritime and International Trade Law practice offers a comprehensive suite of services to a wide range of clients in the Shipping and International Trade sector. We provide cutting-edge legal advice, negotiate and document agreements, and represent clients in matters relating to ship arrest and release, cargo claims, ship registration, ship finance/mortgages, sale/purchase/lease/charter of ships, collisions and sundry marine casualty claims, charter disputes, employment, port and logistics, marine insurance claims, P & I and FD & D claims, documentary credit, admiralty matters, oil pollution, limitation of liability, general average, maritime policy and administration etc.
We represent owners, charterers, shipyards, insurers, protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs, financiers, international agencies, brokers, offshore and marine companies, port and terminal operators/promoters, petroleum marketing and distribution companies, commodity trading houses and trade associations.
We also provide legal and advisory services to clients (including clients in the offshore service industry) in respect of regulatory and compliance matters (including cabotage and local content laws as per the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (Local Content) Act), corporate establishment/structuring/restructuring.
With in-depth sector knowledge and inter-disciplinary expertise, our team provides commercial and pragmatic advice on legal issues affecting the aviation sector. We provide a complete service experience on a wide range of transactions and regulatory matters including mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure financing and leasing, charter aviation, commercial agreements, pensions issues and satellite projects, competition, regulatory issues, insurance, employment and pensions, dispute resolution and litigation.
Our clients include airlines, airports, aircraft and component manufacturers, financiers, international agencies, insurers, brokers, corporate users, maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) companies, aviation logistics services providers, trade associations and regulators.
We provide excellent advice and service to our clients in diverse sectors on matters of protecting, managing and enforcing their intellectual assets, as well as ensuring that they avoid the pitfalls of infringing intellectual property rights of others. We are also experienced in negotiating contracts relating to the protection, exploitation, assignment, merchandising and licensing of intellectual assets, and technology acquisition.
As our clients’ markets grow increasingly global, we understand the need to proactively identify and resolve emerging intellectual assets needs to enable them concentrate on growing their businesses. We provide protection for patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, design rights, image rights, business models, operating plans, GUI design, creative works and inventions and product development, and assist with licensing and exploitation of intellectual property rights and acquisition and transfer of technology.
Our anti-counterfeiting services help clients control access to their marketplaces, and we interface with government agencies in their prosecution offenders and their efforts to keep offending products away from the marketplace.
We provide sustainable intellectual assets management solutions as well as strategic support to achieve brand ambitions. Where disputes unavoidably arise, our dispute resolution expertise immediately kicks in to achieve commercially viable solutions for our clients.
We advise on business models involving innovative technologies – from e-banking and crypto assets, to crowdfunding, regtech, data analytics, payment platforms and automation. We prepare technology licensing agreements and provide comprehensive regulatory advice on the ever-changing legal framework and compliance requirements of financial technology businesses, payment services, emoney and payment platforms.
The media and entertainment landscape is rapidly changing, with the internet and technology providing new opportunities and increasing diversity in how content is distributed and enjoyed but also creating new challenges and complexities, and an attendant need to ensure multi-platform protection. We provide legal advice to individuals and businesses across the music, TV, film, literary, gaming, digital media, art, fashion and advertising industries.
From Intellectual Property issues to licensing agreements, we help our clients get the right documentation in place to ensure that business value is optimised. We offer a distinctive insight into the industry along with a strong commercial approach that understands the fast-paced changes in the industry.
We prepare, review and negotiate management contracts, recording deals, publishing contracts and deals, production agreements, sponsorship and merchandising agreements, endorsements, negotiating royalty arrangements, brand deals, royalty and contract disputes, trademarks and intellectual property, reputation and e-reputation management. We also offer advice and representation in related commercial dispute resolution matters with a clear aim of ensuring minimal exposure to unnecessary cost and delays.
We work with businesses and individuals across the industry, including management companies, record labels, music publishing companies, authors, film and TV production companies, licensing companies, branding companies, recording artists and songwriters, international recording artists and song writers, visual artists, media agencies, advertising practitioners and talent across the whole of the media and entertainment space.
We negotiate, litigate, advise and prepare relevant documentation for artists, individual and institutional collectors, galleries, dealers, auction houses and museums in respect of the full range of legal issues that arise concerning works of art – drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures, antiques, photographs, memorabilia, ceremonial objects, digital art and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
We bring our expertise to bear in acquisitions, dispositions, art loans, appraisals, joint ownership structures and arrangements, art dealers’ duties and rights, artists’ estates and foundations, auctioneers’ duties and rights, authentication and authenticity disputes, creditors’ rights and security interests in works of art, consignment agreements, art insurance, Intellectual Property in works of art and reproductions of works of art, cultural patrimony laws and regulations concerning the import and export of art, droit moral, gifts, and tax issues affecting cross-border art transactions.
Informed and proactive, we provide complete legal coverage of the sector “from seed to spoon”. We offer practical and commercial advice to the full spectrum of industry players including companies involved in agribusiness and food production, processing and distribution, agrichemicals manufacturers, processors of agricultural commodities, manufacturers of precision farming equipment, soft commodities traders and financial institutions, landowners, entrepreneurs, farming businesses, landed estates, startups, AgTech investors and inventors, institutions and others interests in land and the wider rural economy.
We advise and represent agribusiness interests on a wide range of non-contentious and contentious agricultural matters such as sale and purchases, tenancy agreements, contracts, farming agreements and farming structures, domestic and foreign investment acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborative purchasing agreements, offtake arrangements, machinery and asset sharing, R&D and scientific cooperation agreements, international trade, finance, emerging and transitional markets, commodities, regulatory matters, sanctions and control, food safety, land matters and technology licensing and innovation.
We understand the oil and gas business and its constraints and advise on all aspects of the industry; upstream, downstream, LNG and other gas projects from wellhead to burner tip, platforms, pipelines, FPSOs, shipping and transportation, gas storage, supply chain management, decommissioning, M&A, and financing.
We act on deals that encompass all of the major purchase and divestment structures in the oil and gas marketplace, ranging from smaller-scale farm outs to high value, multi-jurisdictional corporate and asset transactions. We are also experienced in drafting and negotiating oil, gas, LNG and LPG sale and purchase agreements.
We advise investors on the legal, regulatory and operational requirements of the Nigerian electricity sector.
Also, as Nigeria looks to greater diversification of its economy, mining is understandably one of the low hanging fruits. We provide innovative, commercially-focused legal advisory services on all matters arising across the full spectrum of mineral extraction activities, from facilitating the procurement of licenses and permits for mineral exploration, mine development and extraction, investments and finance, tax matters, operations, project documentation and regulatory compliance, Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) certificate applications, and host community compensation.
We are actively engaged in all aspects of real estate transactions including financing, acquisitions, investment, developments, joint ventures, assets management, land reclamation projects and dispute resolution. We also assist clients in navigating regional planning, environmental, and health and safety regulations.
Our clients include investors, dealers, builders, estate developers and owners of real estate. We have extensive experience in investigating and deducing title, preparing conveyancing documentation, reviewing, interpreting, and negotiating contracts, advising on tax issues, and obtaining governmental consents and registering land instruments. We advise on all types of real estate, whether residential, commercial, retail, leisure, industrial, agricultural or mixed-use properties. We understand individual needs and challenges and work with our clients through them, as well as provide strategic advice for maximising future income, and identifying potential issues and heading them off before they impact our clients’ businesses.
We advise on a variety of transactions from the relatively straightforward to the very complex, including domestic and cross-border M&A, take-overs, corporate restructuring, joint ventures and other forms of collaboration arrangements, tender and exchange offers, MBOs and MBIs. M&A transactions usually feature technical considerations such as tax, competition and antitrust, pensions, environmental or regulatory and we ensure seamless coordination with a view to achieving our clients’ commercial goals.
We advise and represent diverse clients on all aspects of corporate restructuring, business rescue, corporate recovery. Our expertise includes negotiating, advising and offering solutions to complex insolvency & restructuring issues both within and outside Nigeria, and litigation.
We offer advisory services to our clients in respect of labour and employment laws and regulatory issues, developing corporate employment policies; preparation and/or review of employment contracts and handbooks; employment compensation, claims and benefits, trade disputes, collective bargaining negotiations. Where disputes unavoidably arise we proactively deploy our dispute resolution practice to ensure that no disruption for our clients businesses occurs.
We also provide our clients the full range of immigration related services including procuring and regularising immigration documents such as business permits, Subject to Regularisation (STR) visas, Residence Permit Applications (or extensions), temporary work permits/cable visas, and expatriate quota positions.
We understand that getting the correct advice about data protection and the NDPR is vital to our clients’ businesses, and we work closely with them to provide advice tailored to their needs and future strategic goals.
We advise and assist clients with all aspects of NDPR and data protection compliance issues, including data audits, formulation of data protection policies and procedures, resolving complaints from individuals and regulators, and dealing with investigations, managing subject access requests (SAR/DSAR) and dealing with data breaches, and preparation of NDPR-compliant contracts.
As Nigerian tax law becomes increasingly complex, businesses and individuals need specialist tax lawyers who understand the terrain and are able to help them ensure compliance. We have comprehensive knowledge of Nigerian tax law, and deep sector insight, providing the highest level of legal advice to our clients. We deliver creative and effective solutions to clients across a wide range of sectors to enable them quickly identify and respond to, changes in the law. Our policy is to assist our clients to take full advantage of the available exemptions and incentives.
Our tax service covers all of our practice areas and includes compliance and disclosure, contentious tax law matters, including in relation to cross-border assets and offshore trusts, advice to private individuals (including those with international connections) in relation to their tax position, interfacing between taxpayers and the government tax agencies, advice and representation for clients undergoing investigation, tax planning and advice, and corporate restructuring, negotiating and drafting documents dealing with tax risk.
We provide this service on a standalone basis and as part of our legal advisory services on transactions.
We advise on project finance transactions covering an extensive range of industries including energy (oil, gas and power), housing/ estate development projects, transportation (including shipping and aviation), mining and telecommunications. We provide support to both greenfield and brownfield projects at all levels from planning and conception, structural development, project implementation and financing to completion and post-completion formalities.
We work with our clients through all aspects of their operations, from the establishment of their businesses through their corporate evolutions and to dissolution, at all times determining the most appropriate corporate vehicles, structures and operational models to achieve their objectives.
We are always on hand to advise on general company law matters and legal issues that affect the day-to-day operation of business as well as to help them manage risks. We also provide support to our clients’ in-house legal teams. Our clients include corporates across the various sectors of the economy including shipping and transport, oil and gas, banking, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), food and agribusiness, real estate, technology, construction and manufacturing and we advise and represent them in matters such as investments, corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, due diligence and risk management, antitrust and competition, regulatory compliance and ethics, e-commerce, tax, general corporate and commercial matters, as well as dispute resolution.
We provide support in matters relating to business establishment in Nigeria and assist clients with incorporation at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). We also assist new companies with foreign equity participation to obtain the required foreign investment approvals, such as registration with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) and obtaining business permits.
Okwujiako LP also provides a full range of company secretarial services to its clients several clients. Such services include:
We are experienced in the preparation and perfection of security and financial documentation for financial institutions such as banks and other financial institutions. We advise on loan agreements, securities acquisition and sales, share pledge agreements, public and private issues to international project financing, mortgages, bills of sale, guarantees, debentures debenture trust deeds, debt restructuring, and equipment leases. We also provide legal representation and advice on all banking, securitization and finance matters.
We are experienced in assisting foreign companies or individuals wishing to establish businesses in Nigeria. Our services range from business establishment and registration of corporate vehicles to obtaining business permits, foreign investment approvals, expatriate quota approvals and pioneer status (where applicable) and general advice on local regulatory and compliance issues, foreign investments and the foreign exchange laws.
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