Q&A | Brian Kalule | TMT

[music] my name is Brian Kle. I’m a lawyer in Uganda post. So I have 17 years of postqualification experience. I’m a corporate lawyer if I can say my speciality but I with focus on areas like technology telecoms and media which we call TMT, intellectual property and general corporate law. I I also do disputes in in those areas I’ve mentioned. So I’m a partner in Pang Advocates. It’s it’s a leading law firm in Uganda. been around for about 23 years now. and and and and we’re

privileged to repres represent some of the biggest clients local and international. >> Yes. So, so one of my unique offerings myself and the firm is that we we have deep expertise in emerging fields. I mentioned technology data law artificial intelligence payments and these are areas that are not understood by very many lawyers but we are very privileged to to have to play a leading role as lawyers in their development in Uganda. So for for technology we represent some of the biggest tech clients in the world.

the big tech who I can’t really mention here but we we are privileged to represent them and we’ve played a very fundamental role in the development of technology law in in Uganda. So we also have we also have industry specific knowledge which which is the other unique offering we may we may give our clients. So we are intimately involved in in in industries in industry matters. and one of one example I can give is we are members of the fintech association of Uganda. We were

we were involved in its foundation and we’ve been involved ever since as its members. So we interact with its members who are the payment service providers and other technology related clients. So we speak the client language. We understand their problems and are able to ad advise them in a language they understand. then the third unique offering is that we are part of of most of the legislative development processes for these fields. We are usually consulted when laws are being drafted.

examples I can give we were consulted when we were when Uganda was developing the data protection and privacy act. our farm was consulted and we are involved in the drafting of the guidelines to implement that law. We also usually consulted and appear in parliament to to present views industry views on most of these laws. So so being part of this legislative development gives us a greater insight on on why the laws were were drafted and and and in that way we are better

prepared to represent and advise our clients. So other soft unique offerings I can think of these these are things I can call the soft skills. We we have we are export exceptionally good at communication. we make the clients feel hard. we’re also very responsive and and accessible. we make clients feel like they are a priority and and then we we have we we bring an approach of creative problem solving. We try to think outside of the box. We try to anticipate problems and then provide

innovative solutions. So in a nutshell, that’s what I can say is our unique offering. As you may know, we are lawyers. So we’re bound by confidentiality. So I may not tell you in granular detail the clients we represent. But at a very high level, we represent international clients, the big tech companies. I I talked about them. We also represent international financial institutions, those who are who are lending in country, lending to private sector and to government. We we we tend to be the first point of of contact. We also

represent local clients and big corporate local clients and high net worth individuals. so we we have a multitude of clients big and small but our emphasis is on the big big on the corporate clients. we are corporate law firm so we tend to to lean more on on the side of corporate clients and and once in a while high net worth individuals

[music] I think the one I can think of is as I mentioned one of my practice areas is tech med and telecoms TMT. So I did the first litigation competition litigation in that field. It was a big telco against another small telco. The small telco sued the big telco which was MTN. I think it’s MTN sued it for and competitive behavior and and and successfully represented the the small entity against the big the Goliath. I represented David against Goliath and we were successful in that

litigation. It was a competition litigation. it was the first of its kind in this market and and has ever since ever since it has been used as a precedent and as a point of reference. I think that’s one moment I can be proud of. then again as I mentioned we at the center of the merging field. So recently I represented Google in the data protection complaint and investigation by the data protection office. again it was the first of its kind against the big tech. and and

and again I can privile I I can say proudly that I was the at the center of of something new in this market. Those are those are the major highlights I I can think of at this point. The reasons I chose to join Global Law Experts I think obviously the first is enhanced visibility. Global law experts is the leading global directory. So it would enable me to showcase my expertise to the world to a bigger audience which is the world. So so so I think

that’s a valid reason. secondly it’s credibility as I don’t know if people know but the platform global law experts selects lawyers one lawyer per country after an intensive research process. So for me it’s an endorsement of my credentials to be one of the lawyers chosen in Uganda for for my field. So it’s an attestation of my credibility and then then lastly I think networking global experts connects with a global network of professional peers. so for me this would enable knowledge sharing

and and forming professional relationships which are very good for networking. So, so those are the three reasons why I joined the global expert.