Hogan Lovells building partnerships across Africa

Hogan Lovells, a global law firm has stated its intention to develop closer relationships with Africa and Nigeria in particular.

The firm whose experience in the areas of international transactions in  managing oil and gas projects and arbitration arising from disputes in oil and gas contracts spans over 50 years’, says it’s presence in Africa is focused on building relationships with lawyers in countries where its clients are – to ensure international contracts their major clients have is in their best interest.

Andrew Skipper the leader of the group and head of African operations said, “Hogan Lovells offers services for different sectors including corporate finance, government regulatory, intellectual property, litigation and arbitration, pro bono work and transactional deals.”

The company, which was instrumental to negotiation of $55 million Shell settlement with locals in the Niger Delta over a judgment against Shell Oil in a UK court last year, said the firm has a strong oil and gas practice in the UK and the US.

Skipper said the company wants forge relationships with lawyers in countries where its clients are to ensure international contracts their major clients have is in their best interest.

 He said the company is not in Nigeria to compete with Nigerian Lawyers. He said: “We are not here to set up in competition with Nigerian lawyers at the moment we are not here to employ Nigerian lawyers. We have a high opinion of a range of Nigerian law firms and we are very happy to work with them.

On the purpose of the partnership with local lawyers, he said: “We have global expertise and we wish to work closely with local lawyers, whom we rely on in terms of their knowledge of government and local regulation systems. We don’t want to be seen as people who come in and use Nigerian law firms simply for regulatory purpose,” he said.

“Hogan Lovells, operates in 45 countries and has about 3,000 lawyers.

We operate in an appropriate way in every place we operate. So we are well aware that there are regulations which apply and we respect those regulations. We are not here to upset the regulations but we are to make sure that our global clients get the best possible legal service.”

Speaking on the capacity of Nigerian lawyers, he noted that in most of the firms he has been to in Nigeria, he usually encounters one or two people who attended same university as he did in the UK or United States and he has total respect for them.

“Where I think we can help because of the scale is international transactions, upscaling and helping out in back office in terms of how you manage a project not necessarily how to be a good lawyer. There about as good lawyers here as they are everywhere.”

Narrating the experience of the firm in South Africa, he said the experience of working in South Africa has taught the firm there are lots to learn from the local lawyers when they seek partnerships with them. While they take care of international transactions, some of the important documents require local input to understand them.

 The plan to unbundling of NNPC in future may require arbitration.

“In restructuring the company, the potentials for renegotiating will challenge people in terms of the contractual side and that may lead to arbitration.

 In the power sector,  just like the oil and  gas sector, he noted  that  projects  in these sectors are typically extremely large,  he said  as lawyers  they seldom influence policy,  as that is its role. Where we get involved is in doing the transactions.

“ In a country like Nigeria where the demand is so great and it seems to me that the political will is there, and the need for additional infrastructure, our international experience in working in power programmes will be helpful to settle these deals quickly, he said.”

Another member of the team – Rashida Abdulai   in her contribution stated that they would provide support in arbitration process in oil and gas contracts which is a quicker method of dispute resolution.

“We are there to assist if something goes wrong by providing dispute resolution where parties to a contract are unable to resolve disputes between themselves. We can bring to bear our oil and gas dispute resolution experience and advice on quick resolution of disputes.”

OLUSOLA BELLO AND ISAAC ANYAOGU