Practice area
Real estate, projects and infrastructure
Property, concessions and major infrastructure: ports, airports, energy and the public-private structures that deliver them.
How the firm works in this area
The firm advises on the infrastructure through which Somalia trades: its ports, airports, energy assets and transport corridors. That work includes constitutional and legislative review of port and airport concession agreements, and public-private partnership structuring at both the federal and the state level.
It has examined the legislative framework governing the concession of a major Somali port for a development finance institution, provided constitutional and regulatory analysis for a port-and-corridor concession in Puntland, and reviewed an international airport concession to test its conformity with Somali public law, procurement regulation and state-asset management rules. Land rights and the allocation of oversight between federal and state authorities run through most of these matters, and the firm is used to resolving them.
Confidentiality is structural, not cosmetic. Representative work in this area is described by anonymized descriptor only. The firm never implies a named client without consent.
What the firm handles
A working list of the matters clients instruct the firm on in this area.
Selected matters
A national oil company
Instructed through international counsel, the firm advised on the Petroleum Law 2020, on model production-sharing agreements and on licensing rounds. The recurring and most difficult work was the federalism question: which authority, the Federal Government or a Federal Member State, controls a given offshore right, and how a licensing round is run when both claim a say. The firm treated the constitutional question as the commercial question, on the basis that a production-sharing agreement is only as secure as the authority that granted it.
An international foundation
The firm reviewed and drafted Somali-law Murabaha, Wakala and joint-venture agreements for a housing-finance programme, structured so as to satisfy Somali banking legislation and Islamic Shari’ah principles at the same time. It settled the common-terms agreement, confirmed the regulatory position against the framework the Central Bank of Somalia applies, and documented the Shari’ah compliance in a way that a court and a scholar would both accept, so that the facilities could be enforced without reopening the question of whether they were compliant.
A global payments network
The firm advised on the regulatory treatment of digital financial services as the network connected to Somalia, covering payment-systems regulation, anti-money-laundering compliance, electronic transactions and consumer protection. Because mobile money is central to how Somalis transact, the advice was grounded in how the Central Bank of Somalia actually applies its framework in practice, not only in how the rules are written, so that the network could integrate on a compliant footing.
Related reading
Federal Mining Controls Tighten Business Rules
Somalia federal mining controls tighten with aggressive enforcement against unlicensed operations. Legal analysis for investors on new business compliance requirements.
Somalia Commercial Laws Receive Presidential Approval
Somalia business laws receive presidential approval including new Investment Law creating SOMINVEST agency and Payment System Law. Key changes for investors and businesses.
EAC Membership Eases Export Rules
Somalia EAC membership transforms export-import regulations, creating new trade opportunities and compliance requirements for businesses in East African markets.
Instruct the firm on a matter in Somalia
The firm acts directly for clients and as Somali counsel to more than 140 international and regional firms. Tell us about the matter and the right lawyer will respond.