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The Bharat Raj Upreti Memorial Foundation (the “BRU Foundation”) was founded in the loving memory of late Hon’ble Justice Mr. Bharat Raj Upreti founding member of Pioneer Law Associates; former Senior Advocate and former Justice of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Nepal. The BRU Foundation aims to further the vision of the late Hon’ble Justice Mr. Bharat Raj Upreti by playing an instrumental role in the fields of – (1) legal profession, (2) access to quality legal education, and (3) independence of Nepalese judiciary through research, publication, capacity building, policy dialogue and reform intervention.
In furtherance of this vision, the BRU Foundation in partnership with Pioneer Law Associates has been organizing the BRU National Moot Court Competition in commercial arbitration. We are delighted to announce that we are now organizing the Fourth Bharat Raj Upreti (BRU) Moot Court Competition (Arbitration) and Conference, 2023, from the 7th to 8th of July 2023.
The Moot will see participation from 10 Nepalese Law Schools. The competitors will be judged by panels of accomplished arbitration professionals. The conference is set to bring leading professionals and law students together for an invigorating discussion with inputs from senior members of the judiciary.
Pioneer Law Associates conducted a workshop on Road to IPO : From Conversion to Listing in collaboration with NIBL ACE Capital Limited and The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal Chitwan Chapter on 10th May 2023 at Chitwan .
Pioneer Law Associates and NIBL Ace Capital Ltd collaboratively conducted a workshop on “Road to IPO to make corporate house aware of IPO process in terms of legal and financial perspective”. The workshop was conducted on September 18, 2022, Sunday at Aloft Kathmandu, Thamel. Mr. Anup Raj Upreti Managing Partner of Pioneer Law Associates and Mr. Sachindra Dhungana Deputy General Manager of NIBL Ace Capital Limited were the presenters of the session.
The workshop covered vivid issues regarding IPO focusing on legal aspects, corporate governance, capital structuring IPO pricing, size timeline and methods.
Number of participants from various corporate houses, got the insights on various aspects of IPO.
The BRU Foundation in partnership with Pioneer Law Associates organized the 3rd Bharat Raj Upreti Memorial Foundation Moot Court Competition (Arbitration) and Conference, 2022 from 12th to 13th August 2022. The venue partner for the 1st day of the moot court was National Law College, Lalitpur (NaLC). The moot court saw participation from 6 law schools from across Nepal with teams participating in the preliminary, semi-final and final rounds. The 6 teams were from Bright Vision Law College, Biratnagar (BVLC); Kathmandu School of Law, Bhaktapur (KSL); Kathmandu University School of Law, Dulikhel (KUSL), National Law College, Lalitpur (NaLC); Nepal Law Campus, Kathmandu (NLC); and Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara (PNC). The teams from BVLC, KSL, KUSL, and PNC made it to the semi-final rounds. And the teams from KSL and KUSL competed in the final rounds, with the team from KUSL winning the final rounds. The best speaker award was given to Ms. Anjali Sharma Neupane from KUSL and the best memorial award was given to the team from KSL.
The moot problem was about issues relating to arbitration arising out of a construction contract (FIDIC contract) in the background a global pandemic.
The preliminary rounds were judged by Mr. Himesh Kharel, Mr. Shardul Thapa and Mr. Ashankan Malla. The semi-final rounds were judged by Mr. Semanta Dahal, Mr. Prakrit Shrestha, Mr. Shirshak Ghimire, Mr. Avdhesh Pant, Mr. Rastra Bimochan Timalsena and Mrs. Nida Doon Malla.
The final rounds and the panel for the arbitration conference were graced by Hon’ble Justice Mr. Anil Kumar Sinha of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Nepal, Senior Advocate Satish Krishna Kharel and Advocate Sameer Sharma. The panel discussion was moderated by Advocate Anup Raj Upreti. The discussion was held on the topic of “Role of Judiciary in Arbitrations” with an interactive audience comprising of Hon’ble Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Nepal, various Hon’ble Justices of Hon’ble High Courts across Nepal, and top legal minds across the arbitration sector in Nepal.
Pioneer Law Associate along with Human Resources Society Nepal (HRSN) conducted WEBINAR on Social Security Fund (SSF) specially targeting the HR Professionals working in various sectors. The WEBINAR took place on 26th June, 2021, Saturday, 3:00 pm NST. The WEBINAR lasted for two and half hours with 184 participants. The WEBINAR included a short presentation on SSF Laws, Schemes, Benefits and other legal and practical concerns regarding SSF which was followed by a Question Answer Session facilitated by our Partner, Mr. Tilak Bikram Pandey. Short presentation on SSF was done by our Senior Associate Ms. Sabana Poudel.
The WEBINAR was conducted in Nepali and English using the Zoom tool including screen sharing. The technology partner for the WEBINAR was Nimble Infosys.
“The arbitration team of Pioneer Law Associates, comprising of Mr. Anup Raj Upreti, Mr. Tilak Bikram Pandey and Ms. Prakritee Yonzon completed a five day training on arbitration, conducted by Nepal International Arbitration Centre, Kathmandu in cooperation with Asia Pacific Centre for Arbitration and Mediation.
“The arbitration team of Pioneer Law Associates, comprising of Mr. Anup Raj Upreti, Mr. Tilak Bikram Pandey and Ms. Prakritee Yonzon completed a five day training on arbitration, conducted by Nepal International Arbitration Centre, Kathmandu in cooperation with Asia Pacific Centre for Arbitration and Mediation. Mr. Upreti conducted a session on Enforcement of Arbitral Awards for all the participants. Further as part of the practical sessions, Mr. Upreti and Mr. Pandey gave policy level recommendations for enhancing the arbitration regime in Nepal”.
Chambers And Partners, a leading law firm in UK has recognized Anup Raj Upreti as Band 1 lawyer in Nepal.
Pioneer Law Associates has been recommended in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021 guide. This is an excellent achievement and is credit to the outstanding work we have done over the last 12 months.
Chambers and Partners, widely recognized as an authority on global legal rankings has recognized Anup Raj Upreti, Managing Partner of Pioneer Law Associates as Band 1 lawyer in Nepal.
Pioneer Law Associates recognized by Chambers And Partners for Asia-Pacific 2021. Chambers and Partners, widely recognized as an authority on global legal rankings has ranked Pioneer Law Associates as a Band 1 law firm in Corporate/Commercial practice area for Asia-Pacific 2021.
On February 6, 2020, Arun-3 hydropower project, the 900-MW export-oriented project, which is the largest hydro project as of now in Nepal, secured more than Rs 101 Billion from a consortium of Nepali and Indian banks for its construction.
India’s Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) through its wholly owned subsidiary SJVN Arun-3 Power Development Company is developing this project.
The project inked financial closure agreement five banks from India and two from Nepal. From India, the banks involved were State Bank of India (SBI), Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Canara Bank, Union Bank of India from India and Everest Bank and Nabil Bank were involved from Nepal. The seven banks have pledged a total of Rs 101.34 billion to the project in the form of structured debt. The Indian banks will levy interest rate of 8.35% whereas Nepali banks are charging 8.80% interest rate.
Pioneer Law Associates (“PLA“) acted as a legal counsel on behalf of all the lenders for financing of the project, which is the highest private sector lending in the history of Nepal till date. The team from PLA was led my Mr. Anup Raj Upreti, the managing partner of PLA followed by Ms. Lajula Maharjan, Senior Associate, Mr. Sameep Khanal and Mr. Sahadev Khatri, Associates of PLA.
PLA was involved in (a) preparing legal due diligence report of the documents (b) working along with Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, the lenders legal counsel India for comments on their due diligence report (c) review the financing and security document governed by Indian law from Nepalese law perspective (d) drafting of the Master Security Agreement (e) managing the signing ceremony of whole transaction on behalf of all parties.
