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Key Practice Areas
Aequitas key areas of practice in which we are or have been assisting our clients on their projects include:
Corporate and Investment Law. Advising clients in this area includes establishment of legal entities (branches, representative offices), legal support to transactions involving mergers and acquisitions of companies and assets, transactions on the transfer of blocks of shares into trust management, advice on corporate management and general corporate law issues.
The firm’s lawyers have a vast expertise of due diligence on various types of companies.
The firm has developed and successfully tested in practice the provisions of internal corporate documents that help resolve the dead-end situations and overcome the gaps in corporate law.
We have successfully acted as legal counsel to support the listing of Kazakh leading companies’ securities on London Stock Exchange and Kazakhstan Stock Exchange.
From the very start of our practice, we have been partaking in large projects associated with the attraction of foreign investments.
This direction is among the firm’s most active areas of practice, commencing from the establishment of one of the first joint ventures with foreign capital in Kazakhstan back in 1993.
Subsoil Use. Subsoil use is one of the key areas of the firm’s practice.
Aequitas represents major oil and mining companies, including legal support for subsoil operations and assistance in drafting and execution of subsoil use contracts.
The firm acts as a legal advisor in the establishment of joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, privatization and financing, as well as construction of pipelines and infrastructure for oil and mining operations.
Aequitas reputation in this sphere is supported by the fact that from the very outset of the firm’s practice and until present one of its first and active clients (since 1993) has been ExxonMobil Corporation.
Banking, Finance, Capital Markets. The clients of the firm are major world banks, financial organizations, and companies.
We have been advising our clients on derivative financial instruments, regulatory issues and many other types of financing, including syndicated loans, project finance, and financing of asset and shares acquisition.
One of the most active segments of Aequitas current practice is representation of lead managers in placement of bonds by major Kazakh companies on international financial markets.
One of Aequitas first projects were consultations to Chase Manhattan Bank on the issues of establishment of a joint investment bank in Kazakhstan in 1993.
Construction. The firm regularly renders legal services in the sphere of construction of infrastructure facilities servicing major oil projects, including construction of artificial island in the Caspian offshore zone, infrastructure facilities at the Caspian seaports, and oil pipelines.
The firm has been advising on projects financed by the World Bank for the construction of irrigation systems and social infrastructure facilities.
Aequitas acted as legal risks evaluation advisor for the contemplated construction of unique ski mountain complex and Olympic village at the foothills of Zailiysky Alatau.
We have also been representing Kazakhstan Government in a dispute with a group of foreign contractors over a project on reconstruction (construction) of a section of Almaty-Astana highway of national significance.
Lately, Aequitas has been actively representing the interests of foreign investors in a number of major projects for construction of micropolises and other civil construction projects in the City of Almaty.
Information Technologies, Telecommunications, Postal Services. Client representation in this area includes advice to Kazakhstan Government in connection with tender privatization of the national telephone company; legal support, including due diligence, in the purchase of a cellular operator and a satellite and cable communications operator; continuing advice to an international postal company on all aspects of Kazakhstan legislation.
Aequitas is a legal advisor to leading telecommunications companies.
Energy Sector. Expertise of the firm’s lawyers in energy sector includes business structuring and acquisition of assets, privatization of heat-and-power plants in the Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan, legal support for projects in the coal sector and current operations of heating and electric power industry enterprises, and international arbitration of energy project disputes.
Agricultural Industry. During the entire period of its activities, the firm has been advising on a wide scope of agricultural industry matters, including various types of security for debts of Kazakhstan grain producers for supplied chemical products, received financing, etc., perfection of land use rights, settlement of disputes with grain silos, agricultural machinery leasing, and other agriculture-related issues.
Dispute Settlement. The firm has a long-term experience of successful client representation before international arbitration bodies and in local and foreign courts on a widest scope of issues.
Our lawyers participated in the development of the recently adopted laws on arbitration tribunals and international commercial arbitration.
The Firm has on staff a consultant who was previously a judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Some representatives of the firm are members of a number of arbitration tribunals in Kazakhstan and abroad, and also lecture for master’s program students at law schools and for practicing judges of Kazakhstan courts.
Consumer Goods and Industrial Products; Trade. The firm’s lawyers have a vast experience advising clients in the sphere of production, distribution, marketing, and sales of consumer goods and industrial products, including drafting and execution of contracts, representation of clients before state agencies, dispute settlement, selection of customs regime, standardization, certification, and advertising.
Environmental.
The firm has always been paying much attention to environmental issues that are closely associated with project implementation in subsoil and energy spheres.
Our expertise in this area includes both advice on legal regulation and legal evaluation of environmental risks, as well as settlement of disputes arising in connection with environmental pollution.
The firm rendered assistance to ExxonMobil Corporation and its local JV in the preparation of a classifier of ecological and other legislation regulating environmental issues, represented the interests of Tengizchevroil LLP before the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan in connection with a case on compensation of environmental damage, and provided general consultations on environmental issues.
Aequitas advised OKIOC international consortium implementing oil exploration project in the Caspian region on the scope of responsibility for oil spills as provided for by Kazakhstan legislation.
The firm provides general consultations on environmental issues to a number of other companies in connection with their projects in Kazakhstan and regularly reviews environmental aspects in the course of due diligence of various companies.
Due Diligence. Aequitas performs due diligence of enterprises in connection with our clients’ projects involving purchase of shares and assets, financing of activities, and transfer of subsoil use rights.
The firm participated in the due diligence of enterprises, which are of key importance for Kazakhstan economy.
Privatization. The firm’s experience in the sphere of privatization may be called unique.
Lawyers of the firm advised major foreign investors as well as governmental agencies in the course of privatization of major enterprises in the oil and gas, gold, metals, uranium and consumer goods branches of industry.
Labor issues. Labor issues are one of our clients’ most active spheres of interests.
In the course of our work we have to resolve a multitude of issues, including drafting and legal review of individual employment contracts and collective agreements, regulation of foreign labor, non-standard working time and rotating shift labor, representation of clients in relations with state agencies and trade unions, work permits for engagement of foreign labor, advice on the issues of remuneration, liabilities of employees and employers, labor safety, compensations, business trips, etc.
Lawyers of the firm often resolve non-typical problems that are not clearly regulated by the current labor legislation.
We have a vast experience of protecting the interests of both employers and employees of the local and foreign companies.
Other Projects.
During its entire history, which goes back practically to
the declaration of Kazakhstan’s independence, Aequitas has been actively
practicing in different areas and on various projects, using and improving its
experience and expertise.
The firm has most positive recommendations in such spheres as insurance, intellectual property, mass media, railway and water transport, and many others.
Aequitas was advising, together with the Swedish Swederail Corporation, on a pilot railway commercialization project and participated in the EBRD project for the development of commercial navigation law.
The firm advises on a regular basis on different insurance events and disputes and has provided assistance in the registration of a number of trademarks and other individualization means.
In the course of its proactive professional activities over
all these years, Aequitas lawyers had to resolve a great variety of problems and
the firm acquired experience on practically all spectrum of business-relevant
legislation. Beside commercial issues, the firm has been participating in many not-for-profit projects, such as assistance to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society and support to other not-for-profit associations and foundations.
Analytical Research and Lawmaking Activity.
In addition to successful practical work, the firm is well-known for its analytical research and active participation in the development and improvement of Kazakhstan legislative acts.
Partners of the firm directly participated in the development and improvement of the most important acts of the civil and economic legislation of Kazakhstan, including such basic laws as the Civil Code, Law on Foreign Investments, Law on Petroleum, laws
on different types of legal entities, etc.
Over the recent years, Aequitas has been preparing reviews of the Kazakhstan laws in the sphere of oil and gas and solid minerals for Getting the Deal Through global review annually published by IBA, reviews on the issues of liquidation and bankruptcy, and reviews on regulation of labor relations published in the World Bank’s annual reports (Doing Business in 2005, Doing Business in 2006, and Doing Business in 2007).
Analytical articles and reviews of our lawyers on various aspects of Kazakhstan law are regularly published in specialized journals and analytical legal compendia in Kazakhstan and abroad.
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