How has your role / involvement in client facing work changed since becoming managing partner/setting up your firm?
After becoming the managing partner of the firm, the focus shifted on developing organizational structure where each team-member of the firm are responsible for the project that they are handling and are also involved in client facing work under the supervision of the partners. Moreover, priority shifted to contextualize client’s requirements, and to address such requirement from legal and practical stand point.
What are the biggest challenges facing firms in Asia Pacific and specifically the market in which you operate in?
The biggest challenge the firms face in Nepal is dealing and negotiating with government regulatory authorities and officials on behalf of the client as the bureaucratic hassles and red-tapism are rampant.
The global pandemic has clearly changed the way in which organizations tend to operate. What impact has this had on your clients and your approach to advising clients?
The pandemic presented unprecedented challenges to the business of the clients. Two of the most frequent legal issues faced by our clients were nonperformance of contractual obligations by counter party and delays in obtaining regulatory approvals and undertaking administrative work due to lockdown. Our firm has acknowledged clients’ requirements, examined the circumstances and have advised the clients’ accordingly based the need of client’s business.
What do you do differently from other firms? What do you think separates you from your competitors?
The international quality of work, in-depth expertise of the market we operate in, commercial approach and onboarding the best legal talent to be part of Neupane Law Associates’s ever expanding team is what separates Neupane Law Associates from its competitors. We are fully dedicated to meeting our clients’ objectives.
Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?
Neupane Law Associates is currently a leading corporate law firm in Nepal. Our aim in the next three years would be to maintain this position and also to be clearly recognizable as head and shoulders above the rest. We also plan to increase the size of our firm by promoting existing associates into partners or through lateral hire.