At Iloegbune Okoye & Co., when presented with a legal problem, we provide a solution that best meets the needs of the Client. We produce satisfying results by applying our wealth of legal knowledge, as well as sound commercial judgments and vast litigation experience laced with proper assessment of societal impact, on our client’s needs.
We provide first-rate and bespoke legal services to our clients in the following practice areas:
Corporate and Commercial Practice:
Our highly skilled team equipped with hands-on experience provides requisite legal services covering the pre-incorporation, formation, and post-incorporation stages of any corporate entity. We offer consultancy and support services as well as advice on Commercial contracts such as Memorandum of Understanding, Shareholders’ Agreement, Share Subscription Agreements, Conveyancing Agreements, Mortgages, Joint Venture Agreements, Partnerships, etc. We also offer valuable and incisive legal advice on Taxation, Foreign Investment, Banking, Technology transfers, Commercial Projects, etc.
Our support services include conducting a comprehensive background investigation by way of legal audit and due diligence, applying for consent, preparing carefully worded agreements, and stamping and registering documents where applicable.
We provide our clients with the confidence and security needed to proceed with projects and transactions as well as reduce the chances of litigation, and consequently, add significant value to their businesses.
Debt Recovery:
The firm has a robust and comprehensive debt recovery practice. Our highly skilled and smart team has a firm grip on efficient legal techniques of debt recovery spanning asset tracing, tracking of runaway debtors, debt negotiation, and enforcement of creditors’ rights. To better meet client needs, our debt recovery policy puts contact, demand, and skilled negotiation at the forefront, leaving litigation as a last resort. Prior to litigation, we seek to contact debtors and establish deadlines for payment while seeking alternatives that provide real or personal guarantees from the debtors in order to provide security during the negotiation of debts. Where necessary and in consonance with client satisfaction, we renegotiate debts owed. Where a debtor becomes delinquent, we sue, obtain a judgment, and enforce it against the debtor.
We also assist our clients to identify, trace, freeze, and recovering financial and physical assets. We have more than 13 years of experience in debt recovery, having acted for numerous corporations, individuals, and the Bank of Industry. Our experience is an added advantage to clients.
Property Transactions:
The firm prides itself in its property law practice. Our track records in this area are solid and dependable. We excel in the area of property consultation, property management, property documentation/conveyancing such as due diligence, legal drafting, and perfection of title documents and other documents touching on land.
We offer market-leading advice on property acquisitions. We have profound experience in this area, given the fact that we have practiced in areas where land disputes usually bothering on titles are rife. Our smart team carries out due diligence and consults with stakeholders to provide our clients with the necessary pre-documentation assurances to the title.
We have distinguished ourselves through our ability to trace and erase fraud indices and legally exploitable vacuums by verifying the identity, address, and signature of parties to a deed, before and/or after execution.
Litigation:
The test lab for our corpus juris (body of laws), as well as a means of its growth and development, is litigation. And litigation is one of our core competencies; we excel at it. We have robust and vast litigation experience in various areas of law including tax, debt recovery, banking, corporate law, contracts, Intellectual property, real estate, employment and labor, administration of estates, criminal law, torts, and matrimonial causes, fundamental rights enforcement, chieftaincy and elections. In the course of our litigation practice, we made several novel contentions that were ultimately upheld by the Court. These contentions include the issue of service of documents on companies and interpretation of statutes.
Our success rate in litigation is 92%, and this rate is buoyed by the extraordinary advocacy skill, creativity, and diligence of our litigation team. Our team, driven by our practice culture, thinks out of the box and is not necessarily constrained by precedents.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR):
We have honed our Alternative Dispute Resolution skills to a point of mastery, and we utilize such skills in achieving mutually agreeable settlements that satisfy our clients’ needs. We have represented parties at arbitral proceedings in a wide range of disputes from contracts to trade disputes and debt recoveries.
Despite our proficiency in litigation, we make informed and suitable decisions on whether to proceed with litigation or settle our client’s case out of court. We are guided by a prudent consideration of the objectives of our client who will be fully involved in the decision-making process. The ultimate decision shall represent the best interest of our client.
Taxation:
We offer first-rate and comprehensive tax advice tailored to the specific needs of our clients and provide all-inclusive tax planning to minimize the tax burden and avoid potential tax issues or liabilities. The tax planning activities we provide extend to counseling clients on the extant tax regime, reviewing the tax aspects of proposed business transactions, structuring businesses and business transactions to benefit maximally from tax benefits and designing transactions that avoid tax disadvantages.
Our tax advisory services cover Personal Income Tax, Companies Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Customs, and Excise Duties, Stamp Duties, Petroleum Profits Tax, and Transfer pricing.
Tax authorities have become more aggressive than before, and tax laws can be complicated, but with the help of our smart tax team, our client’s tax burden can be much easier.
Intellectual Property:
This is a rather green area of law in Nigeria, but we are poised to help clients establish and protect their Intellectual Property. We understand how invaluable intellectual properties are in the marketplace, and we have honed our skills to protect our client’s rights to theirs.
Our intellectual property rights services are comprehensive and they extend to:
- Registering products with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)
- Investigating the ownership of intellectual property rights
- Helping clients search for availability of trademarks
- Helping clients register their trademarks
- Handling trademark matters
- Processing patent applications
- Representing clients in intellectual property disputes
- Conducting opposition proceeding
- Drafting and reviewing all legal documents pertaining to intellectual property rights.
Employment and Labour:
- We advise SMEs and Large corporations on employment-related matters including payroll, industrial actions, expatriate employment, and immigration matters.
- We draft employment agreements and employee code of conduct.
- We assist individuals seeking to enforce contractual agreements and obligations with companies and those suing for wrongful termination and unfair dismissal.
- We represent companies and individuals in various employment-related claims at the National Industrial Court and Arbitration Panels.
- We mediate disputes between employers and employees.