Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors

Managing Partner: Elizabeth O. Idigbe
Partners: Dr. Anthony Idigbe, SAN, Elizabeth Idigbe, Nnamdi Oragwu, Okorie Kalu, Ebelechukwu Enedah, Eric Otojahi, Onyeka Ehiwogwu, Gloria Ogwu, Emuobonuvie Majemite, Tobenna Nnamani, Isioma Idigbe
Number of Partners: 11
Number of Lawyers: 30
Number of Consultants: 2
Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba

Firm Overview:
PUNUKA Attorneys & Solicitors was established in 1947 and is today a fully integrated and multi-dimensional business law practice providing legal services to a highly diversified client base, with five (5) Partners, and over thirty (30) Associates. The firm's law offices are strategically located in Lagos, Abuja and Asaba and are equipped with modern information technology and telecommunications equipment. PUNUKA Attorneys & Solicitors is a full-service business law firm with highly experienced and professional staff who are committed to achieving sound results and tailored solutions for its clients in a cost-effective manner.

Main Areas of Practice:
■ Business Advisory and Regulatory Compliance
■ Capital Market
■ Company Secretarial
■ Dispute Resolution; Arbitration, ADR & Litigation
■ Energy & Power
■ Employment Law
■ Family Law & Wealth Management
■ Insolvency & Restructuring
■ Media, Entertainment & Intellectual Property Law
■ Mining Law
■ Property
■ Taxation

Dispute Resolution - Litigation / Arbitration:
Dispute Resolution is a core area of competence for the firm and has earned the firm the reputation of being tough, thorough, dynamic, and innovative. Its renowned team have argued numerous cases at the highest courts and represented diverse clients, recording successes in a plethora of cases, some of which are published in the law reports. The firm is also involved in numerous complex arbitral proceedings across a broad range of sectors and is known for its in-depth and incisive review of cases, clients’ representation, and enforcement of arbitral awards whether as arbitrator, counsel or arbitral secretary.

Media, Entertainment & Intellectual Property:
The firm’s Media and Entertainment Practice are pioneers in providing legal services to the creative industry in Nigeria and represent clients in both contentious and non-contentious matters across the sector. The Intellectual Property arm of the practice provide a plethora of legal services including but not limited to dispute resolution (litigation and ADR), due diligence checks, brand protection and Anti-counterfeiting investigations in relation to the registration, acquisition and exploitation of Intellectual Property rights in various sectors.

Property Law:
The firm'slawyers serve all major participants in every aspect of the Real Estate Industry, providing quality legal representation in a variety of complex transactions, regulatory and litigation matters to minimize and guard against inherent risks. The firm also offers expert advice in all aspects of construction, including procurement, project development and financing, drafting and structuring of construction contracts, liens, payment adjudication, Insolvency, Insurance, Risk Management, and Dispute Resolution.

Restructuring & Insolvency:
The firm has a long and rich history of distinction and unrivalled expertise in this area of practice. It has proven itself a leader in this practice area through an established track record of cognate skill and exceptional service delivery in debt recovery matters, business rescue/restructuring and insolvency. As a result,,the firm enjoys the patronage of high net worth, local and global actors for complex cases/transactions. Over the years the firm has built a good working relationship with various industry regulators and relevant government agencies and these relationships subsists till date giving it the much-needed platform to serve its clients as it relates to their individual needs.

Capital Markets:
The firm’s Capital Market team are leaders in the capital market space, serving not just prominent companies and financial institutions worldwide, but also acting as legal adviser to the regulators of the Nigerian capital market.

Notable Transactions:
■ The firm represented a renowned multinational pharmaceutical company in several cases in Nigeria and the USA in relation to litigations resulting from the outcome of a clinical study, achieving perhaps the largest undisputed civil settlement in Nigeria
■ Representing a leading commercial bank before the Tax Appeal Tribunal in appeals against tax assessments of about Four Billion Naira (N4,000,000,000)
■ Representing SEC in 6 different actions, filled by a Nigerian company and its directors bordering on the statutory functions of the commission involving a petition valued at Ten Million Dollars ($10,000,000)
■ Currently advising NSIA Insurance Limited on its recapitalization exercise to enable it to comply with NAICOM’s directive which says that all Insurance Companies must have a capitalization base of Eighteen Billion Naira (N18,000,000,000)
■ The firm was commissioned by the Agence Francaise Developpement (AFD) and the Nigerian Copyright Commission to carry out a diagnostic study of the governance of collective management of intellectual property protection, collection, and payment of royalties in Nigeria
■ Solicitors to the Judgment Debtor in restructuring a N26, 000, 000, 000 (Twenty-Six Billion Naira) judgment debt in favour a leading financial institution in the country
■ Solicitors to the Defendant in an action instituted by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) at the Federal High Court, Abuja on account of a facility agreement in the sum of US$150,000,000 (One Hundred Million United States Dollars)
■ Advised Liquidators of a foreign shareholder company on protecting its interest in a local company in respect of more than US$250 million (Two Hundred and Fifty Million United States Dollars)
■ Represented a major player in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) – a generation company (MESL) in a suit relating to validity or otherwise of contractual agreement entered between our client and a Transmission Company to supply electricity to an eligible customer pursuant to Eligible Customer Regulation made by the FGN
■ The firm carried out due diligence, generated and reviewed some transaction documents working with our partner firm in the UK Howard Kennedy and another Australian law firm pertaining to the acquisition of the interest of a distressed Australian mining company in a Nigerian mining company with mining assets in Nigeria by a Hong Kong based mining company and are also carrying out the post completion compliance on behalf of the new owners of the Nigerian company
■ Solicitors to the private sector concessionaire in a public private partnership (PPP) project with the Federal Government of Nigeria and Lagos State Government for the development of an industrial estate in Lagos State worth about $2bn (Two Billion Dollars)