Filed in the Commercial court on June 30, 2017, the puzzling case of Crane Bank Ltd (In Receivership) versus Sudhir Ruparelia & Meera Investments Ltd was won and lost based squarely on the choice of lawyers that each party selected.

Sudhir and Meera jointly chose Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA) – a law firm which they had not patronized in the 20 years of its existence. It was a clean slate for both advocate and client with no preconceived ideas or predetermined goals.

TESTED AND TRUSTED

I know the set at KAA very well. Previously synonymous with ‘government business’, this 20-year- old Nakasero road-based behemoth was once the subject of constant scrutiny by the press, public and constitutional watchdogs.

Founded by seven preeminent legal brains picked from government and four different law firms, including former attorney general (and now chief justice emeritus) Bart Katureebe, former director of public prosecutions and solicitor general Peter Kabatsi, brand KAA opened with much fanfare at the prestigious Workers’ house in 2001.

However, it was almost immediately extinguished by the relentless bludgeoning of probe after probe. Three scandals may suffice to illustrate KAA’s Achilles’ heel.

During the infamous black mamba-infested treason trial circa 2006, it was leaked that the firm had billed government ‘billions’
of shillings to prosecute the opposition darling Kizza Besigye.

As is well known, the Constitutional court stayed and later quashed that trial, remarking ominously that it was the ‘darkest hour’ for the rule of law in Uganda.

Five years later, KAA was involved in two costly misadventures at the behest of disgraced former AG Peter Nyombi (RIP). The Inspectorate of Government issued a report denouncing the firm for having dishonestly billed government Shs 4.5 billion ‘to defend the president in the UK courts’ – a claim which they failed to prove and were ordered to make a refund.

Further, KAA got the short end of the stick when it volunteered to represent AG Peter Nyombi in his mirthful case against the Uganda Law Society which had issued him with a ‘suspension for two years’ and ‘a lifetime certificate of incompetence’ for continuously giving the President defective legal advice.

In a preliminary ruling, KAA was denounced for flouting public procurement procedures and usurping the constitutional functions of the AG’s office. When I clerked for Justice Bart Katureebe (as he then was) at the Supreme court during my pupillage in 2008-2009, I asked his lordship point-blank: “Why did you leave the lucrative practice at KAA for the hollow humdrum of Uganda’s judiciary?”

The amiable jurist confided in me that many private sector clients were bothered by the harsh and relentless spotlight government work visited on the firm.

To put it bluntly, government links were bad for business. The future was bleak. KAA was increasingly passed over in favour of AF Mpanga and other similarly nascent boutiques that guaranteed elite private sector clients an arm’s length distance from the next government scandal.

This weak spot was exploited by the venturesome senior associates at KAA who resigned and set up niche boutiques like ABMAK, Arcadia, Orima & Co, CR Amanya, Otatina & Kyagaba (Dentons), etc.

Clients in the lucrative minerals, energy, infrastructure, and oil and gas sectors followed these KAA OBs and OGs to the boutiques and made them overnight millionaires. The remainers were demoralized, which briefly dented the firm’s quality of work and threatened the chain of succession.

ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY

The founding senior partners had to act with alacrity or lose the whole shebang. In an unmistakable signal of the firm’s turnaround strategy, Dr Elly Karuhanga, KAA co-founder and chief brand ambassador, took up the chairmanships of both the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda and the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.

Since then, despite the firm’s high-profile representation of Gen Museveni in 2016 and the Electoral Commission in 2021 in presidential election petitions, KAA has substantially tamed its appetite for government business.

Indeed, in the legal annals today, KAA is synonymous with MTN Uganda and other telcos and fintechs, Tullow Oil, Uganda Breweries Ltd, Dura Cement, Acholi War Claimants, banking and finance institutions, among other private sector clients, on whose behalf it has successfully conducted tax appeals, constitutional matters, debt collection and judicial reviews.

GAME-CHANGER

Acting on behalf of Sundus Exchange & Money Transfer Ltd against three dreaded government agencies (the AG, DPP and Financial Intelligence Authority), KAA helped a group of long-suffering Somali investors to obtain court orders quashing terrorism charges against their directors and unfreezing their bank accounts.

Could this be the case that potentially magnetized the Ruparelias?

Suddenly, in March 2017, KAA announced a genuine game-changer by promoting into the ranks of the gilded partnership five Young Turks who had resisted the allure of the runaway boutique millionaires. These were John Jet Tumwebaze, Ellison Karuhanga, Zulaika Kasajja, Augustine Idoot and Bruce Musinguzi.

Though clearly the perfect reward for a fine set of grinders and true believers, the market reaction was still lukewarm. Cynics thought it was a gimmick, and the critics chorused: “Too much, too soon.”

But looking back at the successful passage of the Crane bank brief through blistering hearings during the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) and the three levels of our superior courts, this was a Solomonic decision.

The new bloods have proved the critics wrong, and set exceptional records for transition and excellence in the legal profession.

The author is an advocate and CEO of Legal Brains Trust, a Kampala-based democracy and human rights watchdog.

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