KS & Associates

Mergers and acquisitions – Joint venture – Sale – Restructuring – Privatization

In these areas, KS Associés works for its local and international clients, listed or not, individual, majority or minority shareholders.

KS Associés ' sectors of intervention are extremely varied:

Incorporation of companies

• Assistance and recommendation for choosing the most suitable legal form of the commercial company;
• Registration and creation of all types of commercial companies in the RCCM, subsidiaries, branches in accordance with the OHADA Uniform Act relating to Commercial Company Law;
• Registration and creation of commercial representative offices – liaison offices;
• Formation of joint ventures;
• Reorganization of commercial companies: merger and demerger ;
• Change in capital, shareholders/partners, management, head office, etc.;
• Legal secretariat: convening, assistance and holding of general meetings of partners and shareholders;
• Shareholders' and partners' agreement;
• Amicable liquidation/judicial liquidation.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Preliminary legal audits;
• Negotiation and drafting of documents (letters of intent, agreements for the acquisition of shares, assets or company shares, asset and liability guarantees; price adjustment or supplement mechanism (earn out); monitoring and implementation of liability guarantees, shareholder agreements, etc.);
• Dispute resolution, implementation of guarantee agreements.

High-level balance sheet operations

• Capital increases in cash or in kind, contributions of company securities;
• Private equity/fundraising operations, both on behalf of managers or controlling shareholders and on behalf of investors, LBOs, related shareholder agreements;
• Partial contributions of assets, acquisitions/transfers of business lines;
• Issues of composite securities ( bonds convertible or redeemable in shares, stock subscription warrants, etc. );
• Share subscription or purchase plans;
• Free allocations of shares.

Other operations in corporate law

• Joint ventures, temporary business groups,
• Restructurings (transformations, mergers, demergers, contributions in kind, partial contributions of assets, TUP, etc.);
• Management fees and executive remuneration;
• Establishments in Ivory Coast of branches or subsidiaries of foreign companies;
• Legal monitoring of company life (creation, transformation, modifications, liquidation, etc.).

Collective procedures:

• Assistance in matters of corporate law in difficulty (prevention, recovery, liquidation, recovery plans, monitoring of collective procedures, actions to cover liabilities or extension, etc.).

The KS Associés firm is involved in family law in all its aspects:

Personal aspects

• Civil status : change of surname, change of first name, etc.;
• Rights of incapacitated persons : guardianship, provisional administration, etc.;
• Divorce : legal separation and divorce proceedings, enjoyment of property, parental authority and right to accommodation, maintenance contributions;
• Filiation : procedures for contesting paternity/maternity, research into paternity/maternity, establishment of adulterous filiation, prenatal actions, posthumous actions;
• Adoption : internal and international;
• Maintenance obligations between parents and relatives.

Heritage aspects

• Matrimonial regimes : liquidation of community property and exit from joint ownership after divorce;
• Leaving joint ownership after cohabitation or legal cohabitation;
• Successions;
• Liberalities.

Civil Law

• Civil contracts;
• Debt collection;
• Contractual or tort liability;
• Forced execution;
• Quasi-contracts;
• Consumer and credit law;
• Compensation for damages;
• Negotiations with insurance companies;
• Traffic accidents;
• Medical liability.

The KS Associés firm advises and defends its clients in practically all areas relating to real estate law, more particularly with regard to:

Co-ownership law:

• Recovery of unpaid condominium charges;
• Defense to contestation of General Meetings of co-owners;
• Legal expert appraisal procedures for construction defects or faults, and in general, any type of dispute relating to co-ownership.

Construction law and real estate development:

• Disputes due to poor workmanship or late delivery;
• Disputes relating to the execution of works;
• Legal expertise;
• Disputes between builders and buyers;
• Construction contracts, construction leases, leases in future state of completion.

Real estate sales and acquisitions:

• Disputes over sales promises;
• Disputes over sales agreements;
• Disputes over reservation contracts on sale in future state of completion;
• Disputes due to hidden defects or disorders affecting the work.

Professional liability law for real estate professionals:

• Disputes relating to the professional liability of builders and developers;
• Disputes relating to the professional liability of condominium trustees;
• Real estate agencies, property managers and property administrators.

Residential lease law:

• Recovery of unpaid rent;
• Evictions of defaulting tenants or occupants without rights or title;
• Legal expert reports opposing landlords and tenants;
• Any other type of rental disputes.

Professional lease law:

• Recovery of unpaid rent;
• Eviction of defaulting tenants;
• Any other type of rental dispute between the lessor and the commercial tenant.

Individual work relationships

• Hiring, employment contracts;
• Disciplinary sanctions;
• Paid leave;
• Suspension of employment contract;
• Changes to employment contracts;
• Working hours;
• Vocational training;
• Status and remuneration of managers;
• Layoffs;
• Conventional termination;
• Transactions;
• Procedure for individual dismissal for personal or economic reasons;
• Hygiene and safety of working conditions.

Collective labor relations

• Adjustment and reduction of working hours;
• Group and company collective agreements;
• Variable compensation plans, profit sharing, company savings plan, participation, shareholding;
• Management of relations with staff representatives (staff representatives, works council, union representatives, implementation of professional elections);
• Technical unemployment;
• Collective redundancies, restructuring, job protection plans;
• Restructuring, business transfers;
• Collective conflicts;
• Vocational training;
• Training in social law and social management.

Digital – IT and Personal Data Protection

KS Associés is involved in the protection of copyright, patents and trademarks:

Copyright

• Monitoring, advice, strategy:

Analysis of creation and strengthening of copyright protection.

• Contractualization:

Drafting of copyright assignment contracts, production and co-production contracts, adaptation contracts, publishing contracts,

• Formalities and procedures:

Drafting of image rights exploitation authorizations and defense of this right; infringement actions and defense.

Patent Law

• Monitoring, advice, strategy:

Issues of remuneration for employee inventions; strengthening the protection of know-how, etc.

• Contractualization:

Assistance in the negotiation and drafting of license agreements, patent co-ownership regulations, confidentiality agreements, technology and know-how transfer contracts,

• Formalities and procedures:

Litigation relating to the performance/non-performance and termination of these contracts; patent infringement actions and defense.

Trademark law

• Monitoring, advice, strategy:

Analysis of the proposed filing; prior art searches (identity and similarities); monitoring of trademarks and domain names; audit of trademark and domain name portfolio.

• Contractualization:

Drafting of licensing and trademark transfer contracts, co-ownership regulations, negotiation and drafting of coexistence agreements, etc.

• Formalities and procedures:

Filing of trademarks and monitoring of the registration procedure; initiation of opposition procedures to trademark registration and defense of infringement actions, infringement seizures,

KS Associés also deals with multiple subjects related to new technologies and the protection of personal data:

• Monitoring, advice, strategy: assistance in protecting IT creations (software, multimedia, databases) and technologies, patents, brands, domain names; assistance in securing e-commerce sites.
• Contractualization:

Drafting of contracts for the development and maintenance of websites or software, software licenses.

• Formalities and procedures:

IT litigation; drafting of IT contracts; (pre-diagnosis, legal audit, training, documentation, strengthening of contractual clauses relating to personal data, etc.).

Specialized in Public and Private Business Law

KS & Associés was created in 2012 by Maître Kignaman Soro, admitted to the Ivory Coast Bar in 2005. KS & Associés is a multidisciplinary law firm specializing in public and private business law and brings together several specialists: lawyers and jurists.

Criminal Law

General Criminal Law

• Flight;
• Assault;
• Concealment;
• Police custody;
• Forgery and use of forgery;
• Indictment.

Business Criminal Law

• Abuse of corporate assets;
• Bankruptcy and responsibilities;
• Bankruptcy, fraudulent bankruptcy;
• Insider trading;
• Scam;
• Embezzlement;
• Concealment;
• Money laundering;
• Illegal taking of interests;
• Assistance to defendants, witnesses and victims who are civil parties;
• Fraudulent agreement;
• Assistance in police custody – preliminary investigation;
• Breach of trust;
• Counterfeiting;
• Compensation for personal injury.

The KS Associés firm intervenes to defend the interests of both perpetrators and victims of criminal offences , before all Ivorian courts.

We intervene at all stages of criminal proceedings :

• Before the trial, during the preliminary investigation or the investigation

Assistance during police or gendarmerie hearings (custody, referral);

Assistance during interrogations and confrontations before investigating judges;

Preventive detention (request for provisional release before the Examining Magistrate and, if necessary, followed up before the Indictment Chamber).

• During the trial, during the hearing

Criminal defense or civil party (Police Court, Criminal Court, Assize Court, Court of Appeal, Court of Cassation).

• After trial (parole)