Advocate High Court | 10+ Years Experience as a Lawyer | Mobile +92 (0) 333 6596273 | Email awaisbajwalawyer@live.com1. ARY Group of CompaniesManaging litigation and regulatory affairs of ARY Group
2. EFU Life Assurance LtdAssisted the Chief Legal in preparing claims while handling significant legal tasks in both Compliance as well as Litigation section.3. DevisersWorked as Legal Advisor & Head Legal and Compliance Department. The core work involved extensive drafting of various documents, including Administrative Review Requests challenging decisions of Entry Clearance Officers, Pre-action Protocol Letters, and Judicial Review Claims.4. Jillani & Co. Advocates & Legal ConsultantsWorked for 2 years in Jillani and Co., a corporate law firm, where I had the opportunity to draft petitions, suits, agreements, MoUs, board resolutions and various types of legal documents and to conduct comprehensive legal research on a variety of legal prepositions.5. CLA Law ChambersWorked for 2 years in a law chamber known to have expertise in criminal law. In this chamber, I started my career as a lawyer and assisted the senior counsel in handling cases, doing research and coordinating with the clients.6. PWMCWorked at an administrative role for 3 years.Awards and Achievement- Enrolled as Advocate High Court in 2015- Enrolled as Advocate in 2013- Member Lahore High court Bar Association- Member Faisalabad Bar Association- IELTS with 7.0 band- Awarded with Gold Medal in Constitution of Pakistan in LLB-II in college- Secured 2nd and 3rd Positions in English debates held in 2010/11- Captained my team and won Jurist of the Year 2009 competition in LLB-I
While reporting directly to the Head of Legal Department, I am supervising a team of lawyers in the Legal Department of ARY Group of Companies and ARY Communications Pvt. Ltd., the largest media group of Pakistan. I had the honor and privilege to initiate and complete the digitalization of the Legal Department with cloud based centralized e-storage, shared Litigation Calendar, Team Work Task Assigning Software, E-Library and Paperless Environment.Some of my key duties include the following:- Opinion writing and reviewing of Advertisements and Products from legal perspective before launch- Managing both civil and criminal litigation of the Group before lower courts and High Courts- Following up with external counsels- Liaising with Intellectual Property Organization (IPO), SECP and PEMRA- Drafting Agreements, Terms and Conditions, Opinions, Reports, Plaints, Replies, and Memos of Appeal- Handling all the affairs pertaining to PEMRA such as attending and contesting cases in PEMRA Hearings, replying of Show Cause Notices, and implementation of media regulations and court orders- Assisting the Company Secretary in ensuring that the Group remains compliant with the regulatory compliances
- Assisting company in legal matters including but not limited to vetting contracts/agreements, MOUs, policy provisions & ponditions, etc.
- Vetting and reviewing commercial agreements for company.
- Drafting opinions on insurance, contract and employment laws.
- Preparing comments, written statements, rejoinders and replies of legal/grievance notices and legal queries related to Federal Insurance Ombudsman, Insurance Tribunals, SECP and Small Dispute Resolution Committee, NAB, FIA and other legal forums.
- Appearing before Insurance Tribunals, Civil Courts, SECP, Federal Insurance Ombudsman etc. in cases on behalf of company.
- Tracking and requesting information to stay updated with ongoing cases, and sending courts appropriate documents accordingly.
- Liaising with external lawyers of the Company on cases filed against the Company.
- Maintaining and arranging litigation data through Litigation Management Data and mail system to meet with timelines and for audit purpose.
- Assisting HR in service related matters and examining and processing the disciplinary
actions.
- Conducting inquiries, investigations and write reports on analytical basis.
- Representing the Company in courts and tribunals as head of legal department
- Advising the Company on legal matters
- Drafting and reviewing contracts and MoUs
- Drafting Administrative Review Requests against Entry Clearance refusals
- Drafting Pre-action Protocol Letters before Judicial Claims
- Drafting Judicial Review Claims and preparing judicial review bundles for their submission in the UK Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chambers
- Preparing Clients for Home Office Interviews and their mock interviews
- Liasoning among UK, Dubai and Pakistan offices
- Interpreting UK Immigration Rules and conducting research
- Arranging Skype conferences for holding E-meetings with the CEO
- Conducting interviews and representing Legal Department as the Executive Member Legal of the interview panel
Jillani & Co. is a law firm headed by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, where I got the opportunity to do extensive corporate and litigation work.
Drafting - Agreements, constitutional writ petitions, plaints, written statements, replies, arbitration references, merger petitions, MoUs, company resolutions.
Legal Opinions - Media laws, Company laws, Labour Laws.
Litigation - Preparing fact sheets and case notes, appearing as advocate in High Courts, Civil courts, Banking Courts, Labour courts, Consumer Courts and SECP.
Legal Research -
a. Belt and Road Initiative Pakistan Chapter
b. Judicial System of Pakistan - A statistical analysis
c. Arbitration of Disputes relating to IP rights
d. Issues pertaining to International Arbitration under the Private International Law
e. Medico-legal issues in hospital administration
f. Digital Governance - the way forward
g. Digital Governance in Cooperatives.
Corporate work - Incorporation of companies, supervising proceedings of Annual General Meetings and all other company meetings, preparing minutes of meetings and company resolutions, maintaining registers of share transfer, filing of necessary documents with the SECP through eService, registering trade marks, copyrights and patents, NTNs and STNs for companies.
Criminal Law - Drafting bail applications, preparing fact sheets of criminal cases including trials and murder references, arguing cases before courts of criminal justice and courts of appeal.
Some notable clients of the firm
- Siemens (Pakistan) Engineering Company Limited
- Dewan Petroleum Private Limited
- Wilsons Pharmaceuticals
- TCL Electronics Pakistan
- Kuwait National Real Estate Company Private Limited
- National Communication Services (SMC-Pvt) Limited Dunya TV
A law firm headed by a former judge of Anti Terrorism Court, Mr. Talib Hussain Chatha that provided me a robust opportunity to learn the art of advocacy and polish my drafting skills at an initial phase of my career.
- Providing accurate, timely and effective legal advice to clients.
- Studying police reports, interview transcripts, medical records and other facts to build a case.
- Advising colleagues on all legal matters, suggesting courses of action.
- Attending hearings at court.
- Presenting evidence in court
- Giving oral arguments in the lower courts
- Finding precedents and doing legal research
- Creating environment for out of court settlements.
- Preparing arguments to be heard in a trial.
- Interviewing witnesses, defendants and clients.
- Appearing before legislative and regulatory bodies or government agencies.