10Protecting & Transforming Value
Disputes & Employment
Resolving Complexity. Protecting Value. Preserving Relationships.
This Platform carries three capabilities under one leadership: commercial and construction disputes; public law, constitutional and judicial review; and employment and workforce.
They belong together because they arrive together. A contested regulatory decision becomes a judicial review. A restructuring becomes a redundancy programme. A failed project becomes a claim. We resolve them in the forum that best protects the client's position, and we build the governance that prevents the next one.
Platform
10 of 14
Protecting & Transforming Value — Preserving enterprise value under stress, resolving what is contested, and protecting what has been created.
Practice engine
TED
Purpose
Disputes are an inevitable feature of commerce, investment and institutional life. They arise when commercial expectations diverge, contractual obligations are contested, regulatory decisions are challenged, or competing interests must be reconciled.
While disputes may be unavoidable, prolonged conflict, unmanaged litigation and adversarial positions often destroy value, consume management attention, damage relationships and delay strategic objectives.
The purpose of the Disputes & Employment Platform is not merely to conduct litigation. It is to help clients anticipate disputes, manage conflict strategically, preserve commercial relationships where possible and achieve outcomes that protect long-term enterprise value and institutional integrity.
Why this matters
As Africa's economies become more integrated and investment flows increase, disputes are becoming more sophisticated.
Today's disputes frequently involve:
Clients therefore require advisers who understand not only litigation procedure, but also finance, governance, commercial strategy, project delivery, public policy and risk management.
Successful dispute resolution begins long before proceedings commence.
- Multiple jurisdictions
- Cross-border transactions
- Infrastructure projects
- Public procurement
- Financial institutions
- Mining and energy investments
- Technology and data
- Taxation
- Shareholder disagreements
- Government regulation
- Public accountability
What we do
The Disputes & Employment Platform provides integrated strategic advisory across the entire dispute lifecycle.
Commercial Disputes
- Commercial contracts
- Shareholders
- Joint ventures
- Supply agreements
- Distribution arrangements
- Financial transactions
- Investment agreements
- Professional services
Infrastructure, Energy & Construction
- EPC contracts
- FIDIC contracts
- NEC contracts
- Delay claims
- Variations
- Defects
- Performance guarantees
- Major project disputes
Banking & Financial Services
- Lending disputes
- Securities enforcement
- Recovery proceedings
- Insolvency-related disputes
- Financial market disputes
- Regulatory actions
Public Law & Regulatory Proceedings
- Judicial review
- Constitutional litigation
- Public procurement
- Regulatory appeals
- Administrative decisions
- Statutory interpretation
- Public interest proceedings
International Arbitration
- Commercial arbitration
- Investment arbitration
- Cross-border enforcement
- Recognition of awards
- Emergency arbitration
- Institutional arbitration
Employment & Executive Disputes
- Executive employment
- Board disputes
- Restrictive covenants
- Workforce restructuring
- Executive separation
- Workplace investigations
Fraud, Asset Recovery & Investigations
- Fraud investigations
- Asset tracing
- Asset recovery
- Fiduciary breaches
- Corporate investigations
- Financial misconduct
- Internal investigations
Dispute Prevention & Governance
- Reviewing contracts before disputes arise
- Designing dispute avoidance mechanisms
- Improving contract management
- Strengthening governance frameworks
- Developing negotiation strategies
- Building dispute-ready organisations
Signature solutions
Defined pieces of work that address the needs this platform meets most often. Each can be scoped and commissioned on its own.
Constitutional & Administrative Risk Review
The firm's signature public-law discipline. A decision, an instrument, an appointment or a transaction structure tested against constitutional and administrative-law standards — vires, process, proportionality, natural justice and the record — before a court tests it. For public institutions, regulators, and the enterprises that deal with them.
Strategic Dispute Resolution Programme
Integrated support from first assessment through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, litigation and enforcement, aligned to the commercial objective rather than the procedural one — including board, shareholder and family enterprise governance disputes, and the regulatory investigations and procurement challenges that arrive in the same file.
Workforce Restructuring & Redundancy Programme
Legally compliant, commercially executable workforce change: restructuring, redundancy, transfer of undertakings, union and works council engagement, and the labour standards financiers apply — including IFC Performance Standard 2 — with the board-level employment governance that stops the next dispute forming.
How we deliver
- Define the client's strategic objective
- Assess legal, commercial and reputational risks
- Identify opportunities for early resolution
- Develop an integrated dispute strategy
- Assemble the appropriate multidisciplinary team
- Execute negotiations or formal proceedings with discipline
- Enforce outcomes and support implementation
- Capture lessons learned to strengthen governance and prevent recurrence
Representative mandates
- Advising on cross-border commercial disputes involving multinational enterprises
- Representing parties in international and domestic arbitration
- Supporting governments and public institutions in judicial review and constitutional proceedings
- Advising lenders in complex financial recovery and enforcement matters
- Managing claims arising from infrastructure, energy and construction projects
- Conducting fraud investigations and asset recovery initiatives
- Designing dispute avoidance frameworks for strategic projects and institutions
Illustrative. Client names and commercial details are withheld where confidentiality obligations apply.
Why Ligomarc
At Ligomarc, disputes are not viewed in isolation. They are often symptoms of broader commercial, governance, contractual or institutional challenges.
Our multidisciplinary Strategic Advisory Platform model enables us to combine advocacy with expertise in finance, infrastructure, tax, technology, public institutions, restructuring, ESG and corporate governance. This allows us to develop dispute strategies that protect enterprise value, support informed decision-making and align with our clients' long-term strategic objectives.
Where disputes can be prevented, we help prevent them. Where they can be resolved through dialogue, we help build consensus. Where formal proceedings are necessary, we advocate with discipline, technical excellence and unwavering commitment to our clients' interests.
Platform leadership
Regional & continental frameworks
National constitutions and their fair hearing, access to justice and property guarantees; national arbitration legislation and the New York Convention; the ICSID Convention; the AfCFTA Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes; the East African Court of Justice and the COMESA Court of Justice; the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; regional judgment enforcement regimes.
Contribution to the African Purposes
Advances African Institutional Stewardship by testing and clarifying the limits of public power through the courts. Advances African Continental Integration through regional fora and cross-border enforcement. Supports African Family Businesses in succession, ownership and inheritance disputes. Honours African Culture & Heritage in land, customary title and community disputes.
Selected experience
All experience →Central bank
Reported
Tax dispute protecting approximately UGX 60 billion
A revenue authority assessment against the central bank created material fiscal exposure and raised questions with implications well beyond the assessment itself.
- Tax
- Disputes
National oil company
Reported
Cross-border litigation strategy in a neighbouring jurisdiction
A dispute affecting a national oil company was being litigated across a border, raising the practical question of whether any outcome obtained would be enforceable where the assets actually sat.
- Disputes
- Cross-Border
- Oil & Gas
National energy regulator
Reported
Licence-amendment dispute in the electricity sector
A contested amendment to a major distribution concession put the regulator's authority, and the commercial terms of the country's largest electricity licence, before the courts.
- Disputes
- Energy
- Regulation
Financial institutions
Various
Receivership and liquidation litigation for lenders
Secured lenders needed to enforce against defaulting borrowers in contested proceedings where recovery depended on whether the security had been properly perfected years earlier.
- Enforcement
- Insolvency
- Banking
Who we serve with this
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