Bernard Mukasa

Partner | Head TMT & IP Employment

Memeber

Services

Industries

Experience

Bernard is a Partner and heads our TMT and Intellectual Property practice as well as being a part of the Employment and Insolvency & Restructuring teams. He has a wealth of experience of over 13 years. His experience includes providing strategic advice on commercial and transactional intellectual property matters, including structuring and management, due diligence, investigations, and advising on, and drafting, commercial and license agreements.  He also advises clients on trademark and copyright litigation, patent perfection, and on matters of infringement, passing off, and anti-counterfeiting. He works with clients across a range of sectors including media and entertainment, telecommunications, advertising and sport, fashion, cosmetics, restaurants, and food stuff and electronics. He is a registered African Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) Agent.

While on secondment in 2014 at Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer LLP, a magic circle firm, at their London office under the International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) Advanced Training Program, Bernard worked closely with teams dealing in intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions and drafting and negotiating Transitional Services Agreements (TSA’s) as well as IP and other dispute resolution.

Bernard also advises several entities on employment law and labor compliance, occupational health and safety, workman’s compensation, and restructuring. He has assisted several companies in restructuring and mass lay-offs, labor export, immigration as well as general labor law compliance. He represents a number of clients before the Labour Office as well as the High court Industrial Division and routinely mediates and arbitrates employment disputes.

He is also a registered Insolvency Practitioner in Uganda and has handled a high-profile Receivership, Provisional Administration, and assisted in the liquidation of a leading telecom Company. He participates in our Commercial Dispute Resolution practice.

He is a Notary Public and Commissioner for Oaths. He is also a Rotarian and amateur football coach.

Professional Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Laws (Hons) – Makerere University
  • Diploma in Legal Practice – Law Development Centre

Recent Deals

  • Advising on the Titling of land for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project in the districts of Mubende, Kakumiro, and Kyankwanzi in Uganda.
  • The liquidator of an alternative and renewable energy company in Uganda.
  • Advising on the Kingfisher Development Area and the Buhuka-Kabaale Feeder Pipeline Resettlement Action Plan by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Uganda for the construction of the 47 km feeder pipeline from Kingfisher Development Area to the Refinery in Kabaale, Hoima District.
  • Advised on the provisional administration and liquidation of Afrimax Uganda (trading as Vodafone Uganda), a leading telecommunications company in Uganda.
  • Advised on the acquisition by a pan-African insurance company of a Ugandan insurance company.
  • Advised on the receivership worth UGX 1.6B of a leading alcohol distributor in Western and Southern Uganda on behalf of a leading financial institution in Uganda
  • Advised on the restructuring and laying off of over 200 employees of Lion Security Uganda Ltd (a part of the Tian Tang Group, a leading Chinese conglomerate in Uganda.
  • Advised on the transfer of the IP Portfolio for a leading pharmaceutical company from Mauritius to Uganda and a leading international Hotel chain from Ireland and the United States to Uganda.
  • Successfully advised the Government of Uganda in an ICC arbitration in a road construction dispute for the Kampala Northern Bypass Project.
  • Advised a leading development finance institution on the financing of a large-scale agri-business and milk processing plant in Western Uganda.
  • Transaction Counsel to the Central Bank of Uganda advising on the enactment of the regulations relating to the introduction of Islamic Banking in Uganda