Corporate and Commercial Law Lawyers in Nigeria

Femi Sunmonu & Associates

Main Office
Ground Floor, R.E.A.N Place Building
2B Post Office Road
Kano
Nigeria

+234 8026673511

+234 9 6232913

www.fsalegal.com

Contact Mr. Olufemi Sunmonu

Law Firm Overview

Femi Sunmonu & Associates is a commercial law practice formed in Kano in 1993 and registered as a partnership the following year. The firm is an amalgamation of the skills and experiences its partners and associates have acquired from previous engagements at 7 diverse law practices, 2 Federal parastatals and the academia. Cumulatively, the firm’s 4 partners and 3 Senior Associates have in excess of 60 years post qualification/practice experience.

The diversity of backgrounds of the firm’s members strengthens our work as a team. Each member is adept at thinking laterally in proffering solutions to client circumstances. Though traditional practice values are not discounted, we nonetheless serve each client with candor, directness and simplicity. The firm serves its local and international clients from its own offices in Kano, Abuja and Lagos, through associated practices throughout Nigeria and in association with correspondent practices in Britain, the U.S., Canada, Brazil and Asia.

The synergies from these relationships are evident in the superlative quality of service the firm provides to clients without constraints as to geography, time or language. To maintain the collective and individual ability of members in providing clients with superior service, members of the firm are constantly in attendance at continuing professional education courses and seminars locally and abroad.

Our firm’s mode of practice has resulted in not only a steady and sustainable growth in our client base, our opinions and professional input into client business activity have become well respected and frequently sought after by foreign and indigenous clients drawn from (though not restricted to) the following economic sectors: Advertising, Banking and Finance, Construction, Energy and Solid Minerals/ Mining, Health Care/Pharmaceuticals, Maritime and Transport, Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Textiles and General Manufacturing.

Year this Office was Established: 1993

Languages: English, Hausa, Yoruba, and French.

Areas of Law

Additional Areas of Law: Public Procurement; Solid Minerals.

Areas of Law Description

Our practice areas include:

- Advocacy /Arbitration/Dispute Resolution

Our firm's work in these respects has mainly to do with representing our corporate clients with regard to commercial disputes arising out of international trade, banking relationships, intellectual property infringements, admiralty claims, breach of construction agreements, interpretation of company rules and procedures and recovery of debts and assets.

- Banking and Finance & Capital Markets

Our firm is retained as external solicitor to a good number of the nation’s top commercial banks. Our firm counsels clients regarding the preparation and perfection of all forms of security documentation. These include legal and equitable mortgages, project finance agreements, debentures, debenture trust deeds and debt-rescheduling agreements.

Al-Mudharabah, Al-Morabahah, Ijara (and their variants) are terms we are quite familiar with. Our firm is a leader in the emerging Islamic banking and finance sub-sector. We advise clients participating in Jaiz International Plc – the only banking and financial services enterprise in Nigeria modeled on Islamic principles.

We also have expertise in the procedure for applying for and obtaining statutory licenses. Our in-depth understanding of Nigerian securities law and regulations alongside our registration by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) as Capital Market Advisors enable us to lead clients to the many opportunities offered by the Nigerian Capital Market.

- Construction Law

Our firm serves as counsel to one of the nation’s largest and oldest indigenous construction companies and in addition provides other construction industry businesses with advice and the preparation of all types of construction contracts covering project management, project design, project development, project finance and statutory compliance.

- Corporate and Commercial

Our firm assists in every sphere of corporate activity – from promotion and incorporation of companies under local statutes to obtaining every requisite permit or license necessary for the commencement of business or operations.

Our firm’s company secretarial service includes serving as registered office to incorporated companies, attending and providing legal advice at company meetings and the preparation and filing of all appropriate statutory returns.

Foreign corporations desirous of carrying on business in Nigeria would find our company secretarial service invaluable. We assist them with obtaining expatriate quotas, approved/pioneer status or exemption from incorporation, and such other services as might facilitate profitable undertakings for them.

Our firm has very cordial working relationships with all the approval agencies: The Corporate Affairs Commission, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, the Immigration Services, the Export Free Zones Authority and the Federal and State Tax Authorities.

We also assist clients with:

* Advice on all laws and procedures for foreign investments and international trade
* Negotiation/preparation of all types of partnership/joint venture/profit sharing agreements
* Advisory services on local labor laws in addition to negotiating and drafting of employment service contracts
* Mergers, takeovers acquisitions
* Management buy-out, management buy-in arrangements
* Negotiation and preparation of franchise agreements
* Preparation of management, technical and service agreements
* Contract procurement, government liaison and consultancy

- Environmental Law and Compliance

We provide advice on compliance with environmental protection statutes and adherence to Environmental Protection Agency directives. We also provide advisory services in relation to preparation of Environmental Impact Assessments, for amongst others mining concessions and crude oil/gas exploration and transportation projects. We also advice clients on terms of compensation for environmental violations/ degradation.

- Intellectual Property (IP)

Our firm is the foremost IP practice north of the River Niger. Our professional inputs into clients business activity is highly regarded and sought after in relation to IP issues. Our firm registers, protects (through surveillance and litigation) and documents the licensing of trademarks, patents, industrial designs and service marks for both indigenous and foreign corporations.

We also represent media and creative arts practitioners in the negotiation of the terms for the engagement and profitable exploitation of their skills and creative works.

Our excellent relationship with the Trademarks and Patents Office at Abuja and a thorough understanding of the IP protection and infringement remediation processes under Nigerian Law puts us at a vantage position to providing clients with a first rate service and value for money.

- Oil and Gas

Our firm has a cordial working relationship with the legal and business development divisions of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (N.N.P.C), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the National Petroleum Investments Management Services (NAPIMS) and other regulatory agencies of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. We are thus able to counsel clients and investors in the upstream and downstream sectors on:

* Procurement of all approvals necessary for entry into the industry
* Applications for oil exploration/prospecting licenses/acreage allocation
* Advice with regards to the Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT) and the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA) as it regulates gas development projects
* Negotiation and preparation of every type of oil and gas contracts
* Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) and Memorandum of understanding (MOU)
* Application for location at the Oil and Gas Export Free Zone
* Negotiation and preparation of oil and gas projects’ finance agreements
* Environmental law compliance

- Public Procurement

Our firm is sole legal advisor to the Federal Government of Nigeria on the Public Procurement Reform Program. We assisted the Due Process Office of the Presidency with the regulatory design and overall legislative proposals for the reform program.
We have the insights to advise entities wishing to supply goods, works and services to the Nigerian government on the proper procedure to follow and the steps to resolution of the legal and commercial issues that usually arise in the course of procurement proceedings.

- Privatization

Our firm has been involved in the privatization program of the Federal government either as an advisor to core investors or as part of a BPE appointed consortium to advice on the design and implementation of a rural energy policy for Nigeria. We are conversant with the processes for making EOIs, putting in technical and financial proposals and the overall framework adapted by the Bureau for Public Enterprises and the supporting agencies like the World Bank.

- Shipping /Admiralty

Our firm’s shipping practice provides clients (particularly merchant businesses in our locations in Kano and Lagos) with a comprehensive range of services, which include:

* The negotiation and documentation of contracts of carriage of goods by sea
* The sale, purchase, mortgage of ships
* Time, voyage or bare-boat charters
* Marine insurance claims
* Cargo disputes (short loading and landing)
* Ship service contracts

Our firm can also speedily affect the arrest and release of ships, and aircraft.

- Solid Minerals and Natural Resources

Our firm is one of the foremost amongst those with competencies in solid minerals and natural law nationwide. We advise, assist and procure approvals for clients regarding:

* Entry into the mining industry
* prospecting rights / licenses
* The negotiation of mining leases and licenses
* Mineral exportation and trading concessions

Apart from assisting investors with obtaining allocation of bitumen exploration blocks, our firm has been prominent at the various forums convened to stimulate sector growth and to prepare the sector's legal and regulatory framework.

- Telecommunications / InfoTech & Utilities Law

Our utilities practice is devoted to serving the emerging utilities sector of the Nigerian economy (i.e. generation, transmission / transportation, sale and distribution of water, gas, electricity and the provision of telephony services as economic goods).

Our firm provides advisory and representative services to government, utility corporations, service providers and other stakeholders with regards to the legal modeling and framework, regulatory, proprietary rights, interconnection and project finance.

Our firm is also involved in the negotiation and preparation of service contracts, management contracts, lease contracts, joint venture agreements, the legal structures for tariff regimes and regulatory organs and the resolution of environmental issues.

- Real Estate

Our real estate practice involves us handling a wide variety of commercial real estate transactions and land use matters for our clients. We regularly advise on transactions structure, prepare financing documentation and obtain statutory approvals and exceptions on behalf of clients. We also handle the leasing, purchase and sale of residential and commercial properties.

Affiliations

Consulegis
Lawpact

Partners

Olufemi Sunmonu
Partner in Charge
Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Environmental and Natural Resources, Government, International Law

Lawyers

	Tope Kehinde Egunjobi Lawyer Admiralty and Maritime, Business and Industry, Intellectual Property, Science and Technology, Property Law		Halima Usman Lawyer Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Property Law
	Khadijah M. Zakari Lawyer Administrative Law, Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Intellectual Property