Abraham & Sarwana

Corporate and Commercial

The Firm has advised and/or is advising local and international organizations in multifaceted transactions, involving, inter alia:

• Distributorships, Franchise and Licensing Agreements;
• International Sales Agreement;
• Product Liability advice;
• Contractual claims and debt recovery;
• Setting up Liaison and Branch Offices;
• Joint Venture Agreements;
• Closing down business operations;
• Disinvest, transfer and sale of shares of local company by foreign entity and remittance of funds abroad;
• Lease of aircrafts (both dry and wet leases);
• Procurement of Major Defence Equipment;
• Anti-bribery / corrupt practices and public procurement legal audits;
• Corporate due diligence;
• Conveyancing and Real Estate work, including drafting and finalizing Lease Deeds and Tenancy Agreements and environmental audits; and,
• Day to day commercial problem solving work

Employment and Labour

The Firm’s practice in the field of Employment and Labour includes inter alia:

• Addressing and assisting clients solve difficult employer-employee relationship problems;
• Legal audits identifying key areas in labour management where a problem may arise in future;
• Drafting and vetting Employment Contracts;
• Advice related to sales, mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, redundancy, restructuring, retrenchment and other organizational changes to suit clients overall objectives;
• Advising on handling disciplinary and performance problems under the relevant labor and employment laws;
• Assisting, filing and handling work permit applications for overseas employees;
• Employee relations counseling, employee policy department and employee relations consulting;
• Drafting terms and conditions of employment, service agreements, personnel regulations and advising on changing existing terms of employment;
• Labor litigation, trial and appellate from the Labor Courts upto Supreme Court of Pakistan;
• Our retainer clients for whom we regularly render advice on employment and labor law matters, include, Foreign Airline Companies, International Power Generation Companies with total strength of about 120 workers, Dock Labor Board having 8,000 workers on their register, KPT employing about 15,000 workers and PIA employing over 16,000 workers;
• Updating Clients senior management staff on all employment law developments from time to time;

Arbitration, Mediation and ADR

Arbitration

Justice S. Ahmed Sarwana, has acted as Co-Arbitrator, Umpire, Sole Arbitrator & Counsel in several arbitration disputes. He also conducted arbitration proceedings in Kuala Lumpur as Chairman of Arbitral Tribunal under the aegis of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration in a dispute involving Indian and Nepalese Companies.

One of the first cases successfully argued on the New York Convention was by Jawad A. Sarwana and is reported in the law reports as well referred to in “The Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards: A Global Commentary on New York Convention” edited by Herbert Kronke, Patricia Nacimeiento, Dirk Otto and Nicolar Christine Port, published by Kluwer Law International, (2010), page 162. 

 = High Court, Karachi, 7 March 2006 (Metropolitan Steel Corporation Ltd. v. Macsteel International U.K. Ltd.)

Filed and conducted enforcement proceedings on behalf of Cargill of two New York Convention Awards against two separate Pakistani Companies.

Jawad got an ex-parte stay order set-aside by the High Court in a suit filed by Pakistan Steel Mills against an Indian Steel and Iron-ore Company, Sesa Goa, India from proceeding in an international arbitration under ICC Paris 

. The adverse order was set aside and the Court directed the party to refer the matter to arbitration in record time of 7 months from the date of passing of the ex-parte stay order, which is unusual in the Dickinson Courts of Pakistan (slow, long and arduous litigation). Discussed in High Court of Sindh, Karachi, 19 November 2013, Suit 732 of 2013 (Pakistan Steel Mills (Pvt) Limited v. Sea Goa Limited, et al.)

International and Domestic Commercial Mediation

Jawad A. Sarwana heads the Mediation practice. He has been involved in international and domestic mediations as mediator and mediator advocate.

• Jawad sits on the CEDR, UK Global Panel for Mediators; the ICC, Paris Mediators Panel; and Co-Chairs the Mediation Techniques Sub-Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA) (2018-2019). He was co-chair of the Mediation Committee, IBA (2016-17).
• Jawad successfully assisted a Japanese Corporation in Litigation before the Lahore High Court and the District Court in Lahore and in Arbitration before JCAA in Tokyo ultimately settle dispute amicably by Mediation.
• In June 2017 he became the 1st South-Asian and the 2nd Asian to be Accredited as an Investor-State Mediator at ICSID, Washington DC, USA;
• He authored the chapter “Making the First Offer” published in the IBA Mediation Technique Handbook (2010); co-authored the ICC publication “Mediation Practice: 8 Cultures, 16 Cases, 128 Creative Solutions” edited by Greg Bond (2016); and co-authored the American Bar Association (ABA) publication, “Stories Mediators Tell: The World Edition” (2017).
• Jawad has conducted ADR workshops for Civil Judges for the IFC World Bank in Bangladesh in 2013 and in Punjab, Pakistan in 2012 as well as conducted mediation accreditation courses with CEDR, UK for Barristers, Engineers and Professionals from Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, and Pakistan.
• In 2014 he co-founded the IBA-VIAC CDRC Mediation and Negotiation Competition, Vienna, Austria and co-authored the mediation problem in its inaugural year transforming the VIS Arbitration Moot Problem into a mediation case. He continues to be involved in the Organizing Committee of the IBA-VIAC CDRC, Austria.
• He won the 2018 Prize for the Best Mediation Case at the 13th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition, Paris, France; judged several editions of the same Competition including Final and Semi-Finals and, served on the Working Group of the Problem Drafting Committee, ICC, Paris (2017-2018).
• He has delivered 4-days Business Management Courses in Amman, Jordan; Dubai, UAE and Dallas, Texas, USA for mid-management of International Rescue Committee (IRC) – a NGO dealing with civil war, environmental and refugee crisis in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Burma, Sierra Leone, etc. (2016-17).

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