Worldlaw Profiles 2009

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Bangladesh

With its largely corrupt political classes in jail or in exile, Bangladesh has the chance of a lifetime to create a new democratic order. However, protests and violence since the beginning of an emergency imposed by a military-backed administration in late 2006 could plunge the country into further chaos.

According to Bangladesh’s constitution, when an election is called at the end of the prime minister’s five-year term, the chief justice of the Supreme Court forms a caretaker government to oversee the election and holds the position of the government’s chief adviser. When Bangladesh National Party leader Khaleda Zia reached the mandatory end of her prime-ministerial term in late 2006, then-Chief Justice KM Hasan declined the post due to ill health, so President Iajuddin Ahmed appointed himself chief adviser.

Zia’s archrival, Sheikh Hasina Wajed – who heads the Awami League and was prime minister from 1996 to 2001 – objected, accusing Ahmed of being biased towards Zia and the BNP, and announced that her Awami League would boycott the election. When the resulting violence broke out across Bangladesh, security forces stepped in. Ahmed stepped down and respected economist Fakruddin Ahmed became chief adviser.

However, General Moeen U Ahmed, the army chief of staff, holds effective power. The military-backed government has taken action against the corruption and legislative gridlock that resulted from the two women’s political rivalry. Leading figures from both parties have been arrested and special anti-corruption courts have sentenced five former ministers to jail terms for amassing illegal wealth and consorting with Islamic militants.

The crackdown on the parties by the army-backed regime, though welcomed by the middle class and intelligentsia, has done much to alienate the Bangladeshi masses. By August 2007, the army was trying to impose order on the streets and major cities were under curfew.

The government has announced plans to hold new elections in 2008 but a lack of coordination between the Election Commission and the government and political parties threatens to undermine this effort.

The overall economy is largely untouched by the emergency, except that Bangladesh’s endemic graft is less prevalent. “The current government is trying hard to make regulatory sectors free of corruption,” ABM Nasirud Doulah, a partner at Doulah & Doulah, Dhaka ’s biggest law firm, said in 2007. One by-product of the constitutional crisis has been a rise in investor confidence, he adds. “Due to less harassment in regulatory sectors, no strikes and no political unrest, we have identified a recent surge in foreign direct investments.”

LOCAL LAW FIRMS

AF Kabir & Associates was established in 2004 and provides services in a spectrum of areas including corporate law, corporate fraud and crime, immigration law, media and telecommunications and judicial review.

Advisers’ Legal Alliance is a five-member general corporate firm that also undertakes admiralty and taxation transactions. Its clients include Sony, Toshiba and Singapore Telecommunications. Bangladesh IP Law Office is the firm’s IP unit.

Chancery Chambers is a Dhaka-based full-service firm, whose head, Sigma Huda, has been the United Nations special rapporteur on human trafficking since 2004.

Doulah & Doulah, originally an intellectual-property house, has grown into one of Bangladesh’s largest full-service legal practices with a range of large multinational and domestic clients.

Huq & Co is another major corporate firm and counsels Beximco Pharmaceuticals, Bangladesh’s world-class drug-maker listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

Banking and litigation firm Juris Counsel is led by Tawfique Nawaz.

Kabir & Associates, which began as a maritime practice, is a full-service operation with offices in Chittagong, Dhaka and Khulna.

Lee Khan & Associates is a corporate and commercial firm that advises both domestic and foreign companies.

Other commercial firms in Dhaka include Azizul Haq and Associates, MRI Chowdhury & Associates, Sobhan Hussain & Co and The Law Counsel.

Intellectual property houses include Islam & Associates, Afsana Wahab, Karim & Co, Muquith Khan & Associates and Muhiuddin & Colleagues.

FOREIGN LAW FIRMS

No large foreign law firms have permanent representation in Dhaka. The few global firms which handle Bangladesh-related work include Jones Day; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Shearman & Sterling.

Jones Day advised Malaysian power supplier Tanjong in its successful acquisition of Globeleq from CDC Group. The acquisition for Globeleq’s power plant assets, including those in Bangladesh, with a gross installed capacity of 1,810-MW, was completed at a final purchase price of US$528 million.

Bangladesh