Mauritius Law

We represent clients on a wide range of employment matters including redundancy, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, disciplinary hearings and drafting of settlement agreements.

The firm provides advice and representation on shipping matters, including mortgage of shipping vessels, registration with Director of Shipping, Drafting of acquisition agreements, mortgage agreements.

We deal with a broad spectrum of claims including road traffic accidents, industrial injury and accidents in the street or open spaces, clinical negligence.

We provide advice and representation in the following areas:

• Separation and judicial separation
• Divorce petition grounds
• Financial matters arising out of separation
• Review of tax and pensions matters
• International and jurisdictional issues
• Injunctions and restraining orders
• Cohabitation and premarital contracts

Where children are involved, our areas of advice and assistance include:

• Custody issues and maintenance payments towards the children
• Residency issues

We provide advice and representation to both landlords and tenants in respect of their rights in applications to acquire the freehold of leasehold houses and lease extensions of both flats and houses.

We also advise property owners on short-term lettings for investment purposes and prospective tenants on the terms of tenancy agreements for occupation.

Advice and options to clients in various aspects of insolvency whether it be corporate insolvency or personal insolvency.

Commercial:

• Agreements
• General commercial matters including drafting of settlement agreements
• Contract negotiation and drafting
• Conditions of sale
• Franchises
• Joint venture agreements
• Marketing agreements
• Partnership Law disputes

Corporate:

• Review and drafting of constitution shareholders agreements, share purchase agreements, company incorporation.
• Company law advice
• Company formations in offshore jurisdictions
• Share issues, transfers and subscriptions
• Advice on shareholder agreements

Arbitration is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts. It is a proceeding in which a dispute is resolved by an impartial adjudicator whose decision, the parties to the dispute have agreed, will be final and binding.

Today, arbitration is most commonly used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions. Business dealings have become even more global, and threats can arise in the form of enforcement issues when dealing with other countries.

Arbitration is a consensual process; parties will only ever arbitrate where they agree to do so. Such agreements generally provide that, if a dispute should arise, it will be resolved by arbitration. These agreements are normal contracts that contain an arbitration clause.

We represent clients in all courts and tribunals in Mauritius. From District Court to Supreme Court, we assist and represent clients as well as in tax cases, trademark and copyrights etc.

This practice area involves the law that applies to domestic and international sale of goods, carriage arrangements, payment for and security for international transactions, agency agreements and the use of conventions for documentary credits. The firm can provide legal assistance to buyers or sellers of goods to facilitate the interpretation of and drafting of contracts in transactions and disputes as they arise from the sale of goods.

With the various treaties with Mauritius and other countries of the world, the firm can assist you in setting up Global Businesses. We have close working relationship with various Management Companies.

We can assist in setting up Trusts, preparing of trust deeds and any other agreements in relation to trusts.

We can also assist in preparing cross-border agreements with relative arbitration clauses.

IP rights include trademark, copyright, database rights, patents and confidential information rights. Protection of relevant IP rights is crucial to the economic growth and development of businesses in all countries. The firm can assist in identifying relevant IP rights and infringements associated with various rights to effect the protection and exploitation of the rights domestically and internationally and can assist to resolve disputes through negotiation or through the various specialist courts based on the applicable domestic legislation and treaties of the WTO and TRIPS.

We are agent by the law to register and assist in registration of trademarks, patents, design and other IP.

There are two different types of acquisitions that we can provide assistance with: the business acquisition and a share acquisition whether an existing company/individual or if the management is acting as buyer or seller.

In any of these scenarios, we can review the basic structure involved in the acquisition and the documentation involved in each case. The five relevant stages we can provide advice and representation on are the pre-contract stage, contract stage, pre-completion stage, completion and post completion stage. We will also review the various express and implied terms of the deal as well as identify the potential liabilities of the client and look for ways to minimise them through the negotiation of the disclosures and warranties in the transaction.

We can assist with the preparation and negotiation of the acquisition agreement in both types of acquisitions, preparing or responding to the pre-acquisition questionnaire and noting the issues regarding the effect of taxation, employees, ongoing trade matters, litigation, environmental and regulatory issues.

Joint ventures and strategic alliances are a viable option for Company expansion and entry into different markets but can be fraught with several problem including shared management, tax planning, capital and funding regulatory issues, intellectual property rights, commercial goals and the procedure on termination.

The firm can assist with the formation of domestic and international joint venture corporations and disputes arising out of similar alliances. We can provide advice and representation on the far-reaching impact of the use of appropriate legal documentation including letters of intent, confidentiality agreements, deadlock, company constitutional documentation, and the ancillary contracts associated with the alliance to ensure that the intention of the parties and their goals are adequately implemented and that the rights of either the parent companies or the minority shareholders are not marginalised.