BLC Robert & Associates

The firm: BLC Robert is the leading independent full-service business law firm in Mauritius. The firm has seven partners and over thirty locally and internationally trained fee-earners serving a diverse client base including regional and multinational companies, global financial institutions and funds, public sector bodies amongst others. We are a member of ALN, the leading integrated network of law firms in Africa. Our main areas of practice are corporate and commercial, banking and finance and dispute resolution.

Areas of practice
Financial services and regulations: Our financial services group advises a vast number of funds, PE houses, managers, insurance companies, fiduciary businesses and financial advisers involved in the sector. We have been the adviser to over 200 funds set up in Mauritius. Iqbal Rajahbalee, the managing partner, is held in high regard having lead a number of legislative drafting teams on the subject and having been the first Chief Executive Officer the Financial Services Commission (the “FSC”) . He is the founder of the offshore industry in Mauritius and served as the first Executive Director of the Mauritius Offshore Business Activities Authority (“MOBAA”), the predecessor of the FSC.

Corporate and commercial: We service a variety of clients ranging from multinational companies, banks, financial institutions and high net worth individuals on all aspects of the corporate sphere ranging from company formation, advisory work, legal opinions, due diligence exercises, transaction closings and assisting our clients in common matters that turn around a company’s daily life. Of note in this practice area is the co-founder partner, Jason Harel, who delivers commercially sound legal advice, by virtue of his accounting, legal and entrepeneurial backgrounds.

Banking and finance: Our lawyers advise and provide support on both domestic and cross-border transactions in numerous areas ranging from acquisition finance, project finance (including infrastructure) to structured or trade finance. Our team is also involved in providing regulatory and compliance advice to banks and financial institutions, helping them from formation to operations and dealings. We regularly intervene on behalf of a wide spectrum of transaction parties which includes local and international banks, DFIs and other financial institutions, corporate lenders, investment funds, project sponsors, operators, borrowers, guarantors, governmental and international organisations. Jean-Eric Sauzier  heads this practice is also well versed with real estate developments, hospitality and information technology. Jean-Eric has also been involved in the drafting of various pieces of legislation which served either as the foundation for or improvements to the Mauritian information technology, intellectual property and data protection legal and regulatory frameworks.

Dispute resolution: Our lawyers are actively involved in various forms of dispute resolution. We are regularly called upon at the early stages of dispute situations where we give robust advice to the clients’ legal position, the strengths and weaknesses of their cases and the most effective avenues to settle the dispute, whether by mediation, narrowing down of issues in view of expert determination or arbitration of remaining issues, or the service formal legal notices. Again worthy of mention is our managing partner Iqbal who is a Senior Counsel with over 30 years of practice at the Bar of Mauritius with considerable experience in handling all forms of disputes before the Mauritian Courts, statutory tribunals, expert determinations and arbitration (both domestic and international). In addition, Iqbal served for more than ten years at the Attorney General’s Office under the Ministry of Justice rising to the position of Assistant Solicitor General.