Akhtar Imam & Associates > Dhaka, Bangladesh > Firm Profile

Client Testimonials

CLIENT: Mir Nadia Nivin, Team Leader, Governance and Institutional Reform
COMPANY/FIRM: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Malaysia
TESTIMONIAL: Rashna was appointed by UNDP as an Independent Expert on Public Interest Litigation to the Federal Court of Malaysia. She delivered a key note lecture on it to the Malaysian Judiciary which was appreciated by all, including the then Chief Justice of Malaysia. I found her to be eloquent and very knowledgeable on every aspect of public interest litigation. She has to her credit a number of landmark judgments that shaped law and policy reform in Bangladesh, which is one of the reasons why she was chosen to deliver the key-note lecture.

CLIENT: Jasmeet Wadhera, Vice President – Legal, India and South Asia
COMPANY/FIRM: Visa
TESTIMONIAL: Over the years, the firm has advised different entities of Visa on a range of issues including payment systems, mobile financial services and setting up of a liaison office in Bangladesh. They have excellent client support services, deep industry knowledge and extensive industry networks. Rashna is our main point of contact in the firm.

CLIENT: Suman Samanta, Operation Manager
COMPANY/FIRM: ABB India Limited, an international engineering company
TESTIMONIAL: The firm and its partners have unparalleled expertise in dispute resolution. We have always received realistic assurances about the fate of our cases before the Supreme Court and arbitration proceedings which helped us immensely in taking business decisions. They are very professional in their dealings with us and we always felt that they put our interest first. Mr. Akhtar Imam (Senior Partner) and Rashna (Managing Partner) makes a formidable team before the Supreme Court.

CLIENT: Affan Ahmed Sidddiqi, Litigation and Commercial Counsel (formerly)
COMPANY/FIRM: British American Tobacco Bangladesh (formerly); at present, Country Head of Legal in Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh
TESTIMONIAL: Akhtar Imam is a leading expert in corporate and commercial law. His opinions on legal issues carry a lot of weight in the legal fraternity and business circles in Bangladesh. The firm is one of the best firms in the country. They have always responded to our legal needs promptly. The solutions they offered to most of our legal problems were practical and tailored to the business environment in Bangladesh which we always found to be very useful.

CLIENT: Ishrat Jahan Nabila, Director HR, Legal and Compliance
COMPANY/FIRM: Chaldal Limited, a leading e-commerce platform in Bangladesh
TESTIMONIAL: The firm is our go-to firm for all corporate advisory work, regulatory advice and litigation (Supreme Court). They understand the changing needs of our industry and the pulse of our regulators. Our in-house counsels have benefited tremendously from the promptness with which the partners respond to queries, their deep industry insight and the sound legal footing of their advice. Mr. Akhtar Imam has represented us before the Appellate Division (Supreme Court) in various matters. It would be fair to say that he is one of the most respected legal minds in Bangladesh in litigation and company and commercial matters.

CLIENT: Sheikh Fazle Fahim, President (2019-2021)
COMPANY/FIRM: The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), apex trade body in Bangladesh
TESTIMONIAL: The firm is one of the very best in corporate and commercial matters (advisory, litigation and arbitration). I have worked with Rashna Imam, the Managing Partner. She has substantive knowledge of company law, the law on trade organisations and labour and employment law. She is very responsiveness, both during business hours and otherwise. She always gave our matters a lot of personal attention despite her busy schedule. Till date we have received nothing but top quality legal service from her and her firm.

CLIENT: Zeyad Rahman, Director
COMPANY/FIRM: Delta Life Insurance Company Limited, one of the leading insurance companies in Bangladesh.
TESTIMONIAL: Reshad is my main point of contact for any legal issue. He has an exceptional ability to provide very detailed legal advice on complex legal issues at very short notice. He is also a tough litigator and has acted as my counsel in many cases before the Company Bench and other Benches of the High Court Division.

CLIENT: Pankaj Roy, Chairman
COMPANY/FIRM: Alliance Securities & Management Limited, a renowned stock brokerage house in Bangladesh
TESTIMONIAL: Reshad is a brilliant legal strategist. He has advised me over the years on various issues including corporate governance, company laws, judicial review, labour laws, banking laws etc. His advice has always stood me in good stead and was easy to understand. He has also represented me successfully in highly disputed Supreme Court cases to protect my rights as a minority shareholder, contempt petitions, and judicial review of orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission and has always managed to achieve the best possible results. I am confident that he will continue to excel further in the years to come.

CLIENT: Taifur Hossain, Managing Director
COMPANY/FIRM: GBB Power Limited, one of the leading power producers in Bangladesh.
TESTIMONIAL: Mr. Akhtar Imam is a very renowned Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court. He has successfully represented us in many cases before the Appellate Division of Bangladesh. He has earned an excellent reputation in the legal field for his legal acumen, integrity and dedication in delivering legal services. Reshad is a tough litigator. He has solid experience in arbitration and judicial review. The partners make a formidable team as one would expect from their impressive credentials gained home and abroad. The firm has my unqualified recommendation for any legal work within its areas of practice.

CLIENT: Shaker Shamim, Chief Financial Officer
COMPANY/FIRM: Globe Pharmaceuticals Group of Companies Limited, one of the largest diversified conglomerates in Bangladesh
TESTIMONIAL: The firm enjoys a much-deserved stellar reputation in Bangladesh. We rely on them for our most complicated legal problems or cases. I interact personally with both Mr. Akhtar Imam and Rashna. Mr. Imam is regarded as an institution in the legal field in Bangladesh, and that is the primary reason we first approached the firm many years back. We rely on Rashna for all international commercial arbitration proceedings, corporate and commercial matters. Her advice has always been prompt and thorough. Without a doubt she is one of the very best lawyers in corporate and commercial matters in Bangladesh.

CLIENT: Kaiser Chowdhury, Adviser
COMPANY/FIRM: Millennium Group of Companies, a leading player in the automotive industry in Bangladesh.
TESTIMONIAL: Mr. Akhtar Imam is easily one of the most respected Senior Advocates in the legal fraternity of Bangladesh. He stands out for the depth of his legal knowledge and his high ethical standards. I regularly work with Reshad. He is very good at providing simple legal solutions to complex problems. He is an expert in company and commercial matters, labour and employment laws, banking and finance. We found his legal advice on the different modes of severance of workers and their entitlement to benefits under our labour laws particularly useful during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Diversity

We are committed to attracting, retaining and advancing the careers of meritorious lawyers from diverse backgrounds reflective of the clients and communities we serve.

Given the low representation of women in the legal profession in Bangladesh, we are committed to advancing the visibility and success of women lawyers at our firm. Our commitment is evident from the fact that our Managing Partner is a woman, who started as an intern at the firm, and women comprise almost half of our workforce. We are very proud to be one of the very few leading law firms in Bangladesh that is led by a woman.

Our Managing Partner, Rashna Imam, acts as a mentor to young women lawyers through participation in different programmes. She was a Mentor in the programme, “Participation of Women in Establishing their Rights (PoWER)” of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a leading human rights organisation. The purpose of the programme was to conduct research on the barriers faced by women in the legal profession and mentor entry level women lawyers and law students so as to empower them to overcome such barriers.

We are very supportive of lawyers with family commitments, particularly new mothers, and offer reduced work schedule for proportional compensation and work-from-home options. This does not in any way affect their career advancement within the firm.

Our firm’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is not limited to the legal profession. Our Managing Partner, Rashna Imam has led a number of landmark public interest litigation (PIL), on a pro bono basis, to establish and enforce health rights of women and the poor and marginalized masses in Bangladesh. Her landmark cases in this regard include the PIL for formulation of guidelines for prevention of medically unnecessary C-sections in private and public hospitals in Bangladesh and the PIL for establishment of a legal framework for emergency medical services for road accident victims and protection of good Samaritans, both of which she filed on behalf of the leading NGO, BLAST, and the case leading to the judgment directing reform of the Human Organ Donation and Transplantation Act 1999 to expand the pool of kidney donors to reduce the gap between demand and supply of kidneys.

In view of her stellar public interest work, in 2018, she was selected, from over hundreds of nominees from around the globe, as one of the thirty-one Asia 21 Young Leaders. In 2019, she was chosen as a Fellow for the Global Programme for Women’s Leadership (GPWL), a joint initiative of Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a leading think tank in India, UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) and Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.

In addition, our Managing Partner is an advocate for women’s rights in general, and regularly appears in television and radio shows to speak on gender-based violence, rape law reform, barriers faced by Muslim mothers to custody and guardianship of children, etc.

We firmly believe that our firm’s diverse and inclusive atmosphere is essential to both the quality of the legal service we provide for our clients and the personal satisfaction of our lawyers and staff.

Notable Cases

1. Advised different entities of Visa Inc. on establishment of a liaison office in Bangladesh, the regulatory framework for mobile financial services and payment systems.
2. Advised Facebook on the extent to which its operations in Bangladesh may fall within regulatory purview.
3. Advised British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) on tobacco products usage control laws, financial laws and scope of trade promotional activities.
4. Advised Marico Bangladesh Limited on laws relating to advertising and consumer offers.
5. Advised Department for International Development (DFID), Bangladesh on the regulatory framework in Bangladesh for the establishment of a Credit Information Bureau for Microfinance.
6. Advised Ernst & Young, India on closure of its branch office in Bangladesh, formation of a fully-owned subsidiary company and foreign exchange control, regulatory and tax matters arising from that.
7. Advised the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), the apex trade organisation in Bangladesh, on reform of the Companies Act 1994 to create an enabling business environment.
8. Successfully defended Biman Bangladesh Airlines (national flag carrier airline) in multiple writ petitions filed by over 1000 employees challenging the legality of Biman’s Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS); Biman had taken loan for settling pension/gratuity dues of its employees who embraced the scheme to the tune of Tk. 4.19 billion.
9. Representing ABB India Limited, a leading international engineering company, in an international commercial arbitration against Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited, government-owned sole electric power transmission company, challenging its imposition of liquidated damages on ABB for alleged violation of the contract for Design, Supply, Erection, Testing and Commissioning of 132KV Transmission Lines and Substations across Bangladesh.
10. Representing Travel Trade Limited (exclusive General Sales Agency of Gulf Air) in ICC arbitration and court proceedings arising therefrom before the Supreme Court relating to contractual disputes over incentives and commissions to the tune of USD 63 million.
11. Advised the Sonali Bank (largest state-owned commercial bank) on their legal obligations under international Letters of Credit following the Hallmark-Sonali Bank scam, the country’s biggest banking scam involving thousands of crores of taka.
12. Advised the Bangladesh Bank (central bank) on many regulatory issues over the years and represented the central bank before the Supreme Court against other commercial banks over the extent of its regulatory control.
13. Successfully represented the mother of a kidney patient in a public interest litigation that led to a judgment directing reform of the Human Organ Donation and Transplantation Act 1999.
14. Successfully represented Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, a leading human rights organization in Bangladesh, in the landmark public interest litigation challenging the failure of the Government to prevent medically unnecessary caesarean sections in public and private hospitals in Bangladesh. The court ordered the formation of a multi-stakeholder committee to formulate guidelines to address the problem.
15. Successfully represented Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, a leading human rights organization in Bangladesh in the landmark public interest litigation that led to the formulation of Guidelines for Emergency Medical Services for Road Accident Victims and Protection of Good Samaritans.