Doulah & Doulah

Senior Partners: ABM Badrud Doulah, ABM Shamsud Doulah
Number of lawyers: 29
Languages: Bengali, English

Firm Overview:
Doulah & Doulah (D&D) is a leading law firm in Bangladesh under registration number 27074. Established in 1965, the firm is one of the oldest and most experienced law firms in Bangladesh, representing the world’s largest business houses and working with the biggest international law firms. The firm’s top-ranked transactional capabilities are complemented by a strong litigation practice with a large client-base of over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies. With 29 lawyers all over Bangladesh, the firm is now one of the biggest law firms in Bangladesh. Main Areas of Practice:  Admiralty, Maritime & Shipping:
D&D offers one of the strongest shipping practices assisting in both wet and dry contentious and non-contentious matters. The practice advises owners, agents, P&I clubs, financiers, charterers and their insurers. The firm actively acts in admiralty lawsuits and shipping finance/securitisation matters.

Aviation:
D&D represents major aircraft leasing companies including both ILFC and General Electric Capital Aviation. It has recently acted for Export Development Canada in asset financing of two aircrafts procured by US Bangla. The firm represents major airlines including, among others, Eithad, Gulf, Air Arabaia, Singapore, and Korean airlines. D&D has been appointed as honorary adviser to Aviation Working Group.

Banking:
The firm offers true banking expertise both on regulatory and transactional aspects. The Bangladesh modern banking legal platform was finalised by D&D partners under World Bank’s Financial Sector Reform Programme in 1996. D&D is working on two FX arrangement transactions for Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan following similar projects for Merrill Lynch and Bank of New York. It also completed a banking project for Calyon Bank on money market products followed by a similar project for JP Morgan. Following the deregularisation of commodity derivative products, it worked for CommerzeBank in a number of such transactions. Line of finance clients include ITFC, ICD, OPEC, ADIC etc.

Capital Market:
D&D is one of the few local firms that possesses capital market expertise. It represents major institutional investors including Morgan Stanley, CitiGroup, CLSA, Credit Suisse and ABN Amro. Currently, the firm is working on the pledging of a big Bangladeshi listed security portfolio for LGT Bank. It worked on the first PIPE transactions in Bangladesh for Global Emerging Markets (GEM). The firm is also working on a Malaysian Sukuk bond matter.

Corporate & M&A:
D&D offers market leading corporate and M&A practice. It works for a number of multinationals in corporate structure and restructure matters. The firm acted in acquisition of Dhaka Stock Exchange acting for Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange. D&D has completed over 28 M&A transactions in 2019. Major matters include Holcim/Lafarge Merger, Microsoft acquisition of Nokia, Zhenhua’s $2bn bid for three gas fields, Ophir acquisition of Santos assets and merger with Medco, AES acquisition of Covanta power assets, BMGF’s Bkash divestment to Alibaba Group and Alibaba’s acquisition of Daraz.

Finance & Securitisation:
This is a valued area of D&D practice with extensive experience in financing, security, mortgages, pledge and collateral documentation. Recent matters include acting for USD2bn financing by CEXIM in Kalapara Coal Fired IPP and USD350mn financing in Dhaka Bypass Expressway. It also advised in syndicated lending in Grameenphone, and other cross border complex financing clients include IFC, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Finnfund, China Exim Bank, China Development Bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in a number of projects. Acting for Sinosure in most of the large coal fired IPPs.

Infrastructure, PPP & Construction:
Extensive experience in all kinds of infrastructures is D&D’s speciality. The firm acted in most major bridge contracts including Jamuna Bridge, Padma Bridge and 2nd Kanchpur- Meghna-Gumti Bridges. It also acted in all major PPP road projects i.e. First Dhaka Elevated/Dhaka Bypass/RAD Expressways. Other major matters include developing Payra Port PPP, South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road, Shahjalal Airport 3rd Terminal project etc. Also acted for sponsors/lenders in Chinese Economic Zone at Anwara and China-Bangladesh Iron & Steel Production Zone.

Intellectual Property:
D&D’s IP practice is regarded as one of the strongest, offering both protection and enforcement services for trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights. D&D first implemented the concept of a well known mark, for Nokia, in Bangladesh. It also has big scale enforcement capabilities which were established when it worked for Sony against over 200 counterfeiters in Bangladesh.

Litigation & Alternative Dispute Resolution:
Complemented by a strong litigation practice, D&D offers effective dispute resolution capabilities. The firm is active at all levels of judiciary platforms. Currently, the firm is working in two large volume litigations for Cargill and Intelsat. The firm is also conducting an ICC arbitration for Gulf Air and another for Microsoft. The firm acted in two of the largest anti-dumping suits in US courts.

Natural Resources:
D&D is one of the leading firms to advise on both up-stream and down-stream aspects of the energy sector especially in the exploration of oil, gas and coal. The firm represented Zhenhua Oil is its successful bid to acquire three gas fields from Chevron and Ophir acquisition of Santos assets. It has been advising US based Quanta in gas transmission construction project following participation on similar projects for Saipem and Drilltech. D&D worked for ABB for the erection of a gas compression station for Rashidpur Gas Field. D&D has finalised the production sharing contracts for ONGC, OIL, POSCO, Daewoo, among others, for the exploration of hydrocarbon in the Bay of Bengal.

Power & Energy:
D&D possesses unparalleled expertise in the power sector. So far it has been involved in structuring 108 power projects in Bangladesh. It has recently represented GE as foreign sponsor’s counsel in the 533MW Gas-LNG-HFO based IPP at Meghnaghat. The firm acts as local counsel to a large number of power producers including General Electric, Blackstone, Golar Power, AES, El Paso etc. Also Representing major renewable IPP developers such as Sinennergy, Scatec, CMEC, Total, ZTE, Sharp etc. It has extensive experience in the M&A of power plants, with AES and ElPaso as clients. The firm has been acting for IFC in its financing of the first regasification terminal in Bangladesh.

Regulatory & Pro-Bono:
D&D recognises its responsibilities towards the society and allocates a specific number of hours for CSR and pro-bono projects. It worked in the FSRP project to reform the financial sector of the country. After extensive research the Corporate Government Assessment Report was published in collaboration with World Bank. The firm regularly participates in the finalisation of other laws and has drafted laws like the Bankruptcy Act. The firm is working for ADB on modernising municipal laws, and in the UN’s MHealth project. D&D also acted as legal advisors in establishing USAID’s Tropical Forest Conservation Fund.

Taxation & Employment:
These are integral parts of D&D’s corporate practice with the contentious and advisory practice representing clients from tribunal to appellate division in Supreme Court. The firm is currently working in a constitutional writ for MAS in a very large VAT and for UPS in direct tax disputes. The firm successfully represented El Paso for a tax exemption. With an in-depth employment practice, the firm has just completed a pension fund creation for Children’s Place. It also advises clients like BAT, GE and Intertek on long term incentive options with regular employment clients like GAP, Puma, EWM, VF and HP.

Telecommunication & Fintech:
The telecommunication and fintech practice at D&D is one of the finest. It is working for Space Partnership on the procurement and launch of the first satellite for Bangladesh. It is also working with NERA on the auction of 3G licenses. Current major projects include the establishment of a global roaming hub for a leading global operator, a global mobile banking platform for Belgacom, and a dedicated access point for Akamai. Acted for Gates Foundation in investing in Bkash and then divesting a part to Ant FInancial and acted for Ant Financial in acquiring Daraz. Other corporate projects include AT&T, WorldCom, ZTE, Nokia, Grameenphone, among others. The firm represents a large number of clients in fintech matters such as Microsoft, Ant Financial and Google.