Business, Corporate and Commercial Law

Registered on March 8, 1996, the Law Firm of CREED & Co. advises individuals, corporate, investor groups, foreign and domestic corporations, for-profit and not-for-profit companies, small businesses and entrepreneurs and provides invaluable legal and business resources that will aid clients in structuring and managing successful transactions and organizations.

As corporate attorneys, we counsel clients on:

  • Purchasing and selling agreements;
  • Entity counselling and formation, including: (e.g., Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, LLC, PLC or Trust);
  • Negotiation and preparation of operating agreements and shareholder agreements;
  • Negotiation and preparation of employment and severance agreements;
  • Drafting, reviewing and negotiating confidentiality, internet and technology related agreements and other commercial agreements;
  • Formation of tax-exempt not-for-profit companies (Part C of CAMA)
  • Drafting and negotiating leases;
  • Structuring investments involving foreign investors in a way to avoid double taxes and to maximize ability to repatriate returns.
  • Advising and preparing documentation for partnerships, joint ventures and strategic alliances;
  • Obtaining business certificates, initial tax papers and VAT documentation;
  • Handling commercial real estate leasing, financings and closings;
  • Handling contractual disputes (including collections and enforcement of obligations); and
  • Corporate governance
  • With the help of our attorneys, we will provide you with the legal framework to protect the valuable time, energy, passion and resources you have invested into your endeavour.

In essence, we are able to assist you with preparation of all documentation that may be required to meet a due diligence review of your business by a possible equity investor, partner or in an acquisition transaction.

 

Real Estate Transactions

  • Due diligence checks and verifications
  • Searches and Investigations
  • Acquisition and disposals
  • Forms: Sale, Sale and Lease-back, Mortgage and other Secured Credit Transactions

 

Patent, Trademark & Copyright Protection

We have in-depth experience in handling intellectual property matters, including the protection, licensing, and litigation of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and trade names, trademarks and devices.

Our expertise includes the prosecution of patents and trademarks and the perfection of copyrights. Our licensing transactions expertise includes the licensing and assignment of patents, copyrights, and trademarks and devices, as well as counseling on trade secret and unfair competition issues.

 

Employment Law

Employment and labor laws affect every aspect of employers’ relationships with their employees from the initial hiring interview through the exit interview.  A company’s human resources are one of the most important assets of every business.  At CREED & Co., our attorneys help employers manage the legal issues they encounter in their day-to-day interactions with their employees.

Our attorneys are always available to advise and counsel your executive officers and human resources department on critical employment policies and issues such as independent contractors, employee discipline, and termination.  Counseling includes advising employers on covenants not to compete, drafting employment contracts, employee handbooks, sexual harassment prevention, confidentiality, privacy, termination, salary & wages administration, Industrial relations, and immigration.  We work closely with our clients on regulatory compliance issues and preventive measures designed to reduce liabilities and avoid troublesome situations.

We consistently focus on advising clients on implementing policies and procedures to prevent employment problems before they occur.  However, when problems cannot be resolved informally, our litigation group is prepared to aggressively represent our clients’ interests.

Litigation

Mike Odibeli Attorneys are constantly aware that litigation is a serious and expensive incident that will likely affect the personal and professional lives and relationships of our clients. As a result, our paramount aim is to provide an early assessment of risks, costs and benefits of potential litigation and to develop an early case management strategy.   This early assessment and evaluation will be to identify key legal and factual issues and narrow the issues for litigation. Our goal is to define client business, monetary and personal resources from the outset.  Our goal is to assess the client objectives and create a flexible and effective strategy for achieving that strategic objective in a cost effective manner.  Our litigators are problem solvers.  We offer professional counsel for decision making, strategy to implement those decisions and effective presentations to judges, mediators and arbitrators.

Our litigation team has extensive experience in all aspects of business litigation; including interpretation and enforcement of contracts, real estate disputes, corporate and partnership litigation, intellectual property and employment law litigation.

 

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Our litigation attorneys view themselves as problem solvers; and, as a result, they strive to find creative ways to resolve disputes and achieve the results our clients’ desire. When properly used and under the right circumstances, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is often a cost effective, time saving way to achieve our clients’ goals.

Members of our ADR team are experienced in successfully employing ADR procedures; such as neutral evaluations, mediations and arbitrations. ADR can drastically reduce the amount of time and cost needed to resolve disputes by focusing the parties on key issues in the dispute, and by limiting or eliminating lengthy preliminaries and hearings.

We have found that ADR is particularly useful in resolving disputes between parties who have an ongoing business relationship, disputes over matters where litigation in court would not be economical.  ADR focuses on identifying the client’s objectives, assessing those objectives and creating and developing strategy for resolving disputes in a cost effective manner. Our ADR team (with input from our litigation team) are able to identify legal issues, assess potential costs and risks, predict probable outcomes of litigation, distill complex issues and present them in a succinct and organized manner, develop a strategy for resolving disputes and advocate and execute a resolution strategy.

 

Expatriate Immigration/Consular Services

Nigerian businesses often invite business and Technical partners for meetings and engage the services of Non-Nigerian employees, or Nigerians with dual nationalities to work within the country. Our role is to provide seamless immigration and logistic support for the successful mobilisation of such personnel to Nigeria. We provide:

  • Procurement, renewal and Management of Expatriate Quota positions
  • Procurement of Business Permit for host company in Nigeria
  • Procurement, renewal and extension of STR (Subject to regularization) Permits
  • Procurement and management of PUR status for high level company executives and foreign technical partners;
  • Procurement and renewal of TWP (Temporary Work Permits)
  • Procurement and renewal of Temporary and permanent Combined Expatriate Residence Permits (CERPAC) Cards;
  • Preparation and submission of monthly Expatriate Quota Returns with the Federal Ministry of the Interior.