Dr. Tom Kabau
Tom Kabau is the Managing Partner of the Firm, and was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya in 2007. He also serves as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). Kabau holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in International Law from the University of Hong Kong, and Master of Laws (LLM) and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees from the University of Nairobi. He was previously a Research Fellow at Utrecht University, and a 2015 Transnational Law Summer Institute Fellow at the Kings College London.
Kabau’s expertise include providing legal practice and consultancy services on diverse issues that include:
- Acting for clients in diverse aspects of conveyancing and estate development projects, including; property acquisition and disposal; due diligence; structuring real estate investment and development agreements, including joint ventures; registration of property rights and interests; advising and representing estate management corporations and residents associations on governance issues and enforcement; and providing advisory services relating to land, physical planning and construction laws and regulations;
- Structuring, drafting and registering the constitutive documents of diverse business and non-business entities such as private and public companies limited by shares, companies limited by guarantee with or without share capital, local branches of foreign companies, partnerships, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), business names, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), co-operative societies, social welfare associations, family trusts, and charitable trusts and foundations;
- Providing estate planning and succession legal services including: registration of family trusts, gifts and bequeaths, and powers of attorney; petitioning letters of administration and probate; and representing legitimate beneficiaries in succession processes;
- Undertaking compliance audits and potential legal and regulatory liability and vulnerability assessments in government agencies, organisations and corporations and providing appropriate recommendations to mitigate any identified risks;
- Drafting and reviewed employment contracts, in addition to advising both business and non-business entities on issues relating to employment and industrial relations law;
- Safeguarding the intellectual property rights of clients by ensuring their effective protection. In that context, I am involved in the registration of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, industrial designs, utility models, and plant breeders’ rights both under the Kenyan and international legal and institutional framework, and in the drafting and review of non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements;
- Litigation and conflict resolution including by instituting, prosecuting and defending legal proceedings of diverse forms of civil and commercial disputes and claims in courts and tribunals; brokering and facilitating negotiated and out-of-court settlements; and representing clients in arbitration and mediation proceedings and providing negotiating and conciliation services.
As an avid legal practitioner, consultant and researcher, Kabau’s work and contributions that seek solutions to diverse legal problems and issues have been published in reputable peer reviewed journals and books by leading global publishers, with some select work accessible at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9pd0fIQAAAAJ&hl=en and at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1600181