Advising companies on the agreements they enter, the obligations those agreements create, and the statutory and regulatory duties that sit behind them.
Most of this practice is preventive: getting the document right so the dispute does not arrive. Where it does arrive, the same partners conduct it.
Drafting, review and negotiation of supply and distribution agreements, service agreements, joint ventures and shareholder arrangements. The question we press first is what happens when performance fails, because that clause decides the value of the rest.
Advising boards and management on their duties under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, filings and returns at the Corporate Affairs Commission, and internal policies. Also the governance questions that arise in closely held and family-owned companies, where ownership and management are the same people.
Acting for lenders and for corporate borrowers. Loan and facility documentation, the creation and perfection of security, and recovery where a facility has gone into default. Security that has not been perfected within time is frequently the reason a recovery fails.
Contracts of employment and staff handbooks, terminations and the disputes that follow them, staff injury claims, and industrial relations across a large workforce. Advice is given on what the position is, including where it does not favour the employer.
Three stages. You are told at the outset which one the matter is in and what closing it requires.
For a review, the agreement itself is the most useful thing to send first. For a dispute, the contract and the correspondence.