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SALAWASSOCIATES
Case results

Representative matters, described honestly.

Each entry below sets out what the client faced, what made it difficult, what we did, and what happened. Names and identifying details are removed; figures are rounded.

Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter. Every case turns on its own facts and applicable law.

Selected work

Eight matters, across four practice groups.

These were chosen because they are typical of how the firm works, not because they were the largest. Several of them are notable precisely because nothing dramatic happened.

Showing 8 of 8 representative matters.

Corporate & Business Law2024

Closing a stalled Series B over disputed warranty terms

  • Closed in 19 days
  • Valuation held
  • No price adjustment
The situation
A technology company had agreed headline terms for a growth round. Four months later the transaction had not closed: the investor's counsel and the company's previous advisors were exchanging markups over the warranty schedule and the disclosure position, and the round was at risk of collapsing.
The legal challenge
The parties had stopped negotiating and started defending positions. The company also had two historical issues — an incomplete IP assignment chain and an unregistered option grant — that had not yet been disclosed and would have been discovered.
Our approach
We separated the commercial disagreement from the technical one. The IP chain was closed and the option grant regularised before the next disclosure round, so both items were presented as resolved rather than found. On the warranty schedule we conceded the three points that carried no real exposure and held firm on the two that did, with a written rationale for each.
The outcome
The round closed nineteen days after we were instructed, on the original headline valuation. The warranty cap and survival period settled close to the company's opening position, and the two remediated issues were disclosed without any price adjustment.
Civil Litigation2023

Breaking a shareholder deadlock in a family manufacturing group

  • Resolved in 3 months
  • No contested trial
  • Business continued trading
The situation
Two branches of a family held equal stakes in a manufacturing group. Board decisions had been deadlocked for over a year, capital expenditure had stopped, and the operating business was losing customers to competitors.
The legal challenge
The shareholders' agreement contained no deadlock mechanism and no valuation formula. Both sides wanted to buy, neither wanted to sell, and the relationship had deteriorated to the point where they were not in the same room.
Our approach
We filed for relief on the basis of prejudicial conduct while simultaneously proposing a sealed-bid buyout mechanism to the other side. Filing established that the deadlock had a forced exit; the proposal gave both sides a route that did not require them to negotiate directly.
The outcome
The sealed-bid process was agreed six weeks after filing and completed within three months. One branch acquired the other's holding at a price set by their own bid. The operating business resumed capital investment the same quarter.
Criminal Law2024

Pre-charge closure of a financial-services fraud investigation

  • No charge brought
  • No adverse regulatory finding
The situation
A director of a financial services company was named in a complaint alleging fraudulent misrepresentation in connection with a client portfolio. An investigation was opened and the director was summoned for interview within a week.
The legal challenge
The complaint conflated the director's personal conduct with decisions taken at committee level. The company's own records were disorganised, and there was a real risk that an unprepared interview would produce an account that could not later be corrected.
Our approach
We deferred the interview by five days on documented grounds and used that time to reconstruct the decision chain from board minutes, committee records and correspondence. The interview was then attended with a prepared written statement establishing that each impugned decision had been taken collectively and on professional advice.
The outcome
The investigation closed nine months later with no charge brought against the director. A parallel regulatory enquiry was concluded with no adverse finding.
Family Law2023

Negotiated relocation and shared custody across jurisdictions

  • Settled in 11 weeks
  • No contested hearing
  • Recognised in both jurisdictions
The situation
Following a divorce, one parent received a job offer requiring relocation abroad with the couple's two children. The other parent opposed the move. Both had been advised that the matter would be contested at trial.
The legal challenge
A contested relocation application would have taken eighteen months, cost both parties heavily, and produced a binary result. The children were of school age and the uncertainty was already affecting them.
Our approach
We proposed mediation with a defined agenda: not whether the move should happen, but what arrangement would make it workable. We prepared a detailed schedule covering term-time contact, travel funding, holiday allocation and a review mechanism, and had it drafted for recognition in both jurisdictions.
The outcome
A consent arrangement was agreed in four mediated sessions over eleven weeks and recognised in both jurisdictions. Neither parent attended a contested hearing. The arrangement has operated without variation since.
Property & Real Estate Law2022

Title defect identified before completion on a development site

  • Defect found pre-completion
  • Clean title at completion
  • Risk funded by retention
The situation
A developer was three weeks from completing on a substantial site intended for a mixed-use scheme. Preliminary diligence had been carried out by another advisor and had raised no concerns.
The legal challenge
Our review of the ownership chain found an unresolved succession interest three transfers back. The interest had never been extinguished, and the seller was not aware of it. Any structure built on the site would have been exposed to a claim from the successors.
Our approach
We paused completion and mapped the succession chain against the registry record and the original grant. We then set out the seller's options: obtain releases from the identified successors, or accept a price reduction reflecting the risk and an indemnity.
The outcome
The seller obtained releases from four of the five successors over five months. The fifth interest was resolved by a negotiated payment funded from a retention against the purchase price. Completion proceeded with clean title.
Employment & Labor Law2024

Multi-site restructuring completed without a single claim

  • No claims filed
  • 84 roles redeployed
  • Completed on schedule
The situation
A healthcare group needed to consolidate three regional operations into one, affecting roughly 240 roles across clinical and administrative functions.
The legal challenge
Restructurings of this size ordinarily generate claims. The group had no consultation protocol, managers had no training in lawful selection, and an earlier reorganisation at one site had already produced two unresolved grievances.
Our approach
We built the process before it started: objective selection criteria signed off in advance, a documented consultation timetable, scripted manager briefings, and a written record for every individual meeting. Selection scoring was reviewed independently before any outcome was communicated.
The outcome
The restructuring completed on schedule. Of the affected roles, 84 were redeployed internally. No claim was filed. The two pre-existing grievances were resolved during the same process.
Tax & Financial Law2023

Successful defence of a contested transfer-pricing assessment

  • Penalty set aside
  • Assessment substantially reduced
  • Documentation rebuilt
The situation
An industrial group received a reassessment challenging the pricing of intra-group services over three financial years, with a demand and penalty exposure representing a material share of annual profit.
The legal challenge
The contemporaneous documentation for the earliest year was incomplete, and the comparables set the group had relied on was no longer defensible on its original basis.
Our approach
We rebuilt the functional analysis from operational evidence — contracts, service records, staffing allocations — rather than relying on the original study, and substituted a defensible comparables set for the affected period. The position was presented at assessment stage rather than held back for appeal.
The outcome
The assessment was substantially reduced at first appellate level and the penalty component was set aside entirely. The group's documentation process was rebuilt so the same gap could not recur.
Intellectual Property2022

Recovering trademark rights filed by an overseas distributor

  • Rights recovered in 9 markets
  • Remaining 2 settled by assignment
The situation
A consumer goods brand discovered that its exclusive distributor had registered the brand's marks in its own name across eleven markets, and was asserting those registrations to block a change of distribution partner.
The legal challenge
The registrations were valid on their face. The distribution agreement was silent on IP ownership, and in several of the affected markets the limitation period for bad-faith challenge was close to expiring.
Our approach
We prioritised by limitation date rather than market size, filing bad-faith cancellation actions in the four markets closest to expiry within six weeks. In parallel we assembled the evidential record of prior use and the agency relationship, which was the same core evidence needed in every jurisdiction.
The outcome
Registrations were cancelled or assigned back in nine of the eleven markets over twenty-two months. The remaining two were resolved by negotiated assignment as part of the distribution wind-down.

Why some outcomes look undramatic

A restructuring that generated no claims, or a purchase that completed on clean title, is a better result than a case won after two years of litigation. The absence of a dispute is usually the outcome we were engaged to produce.

What has been left out

Matters still in progress, matters under confidentiality undertakings, and matters where the client has not consented to even an anonymised description. That is a substantial share of the practice.

What these do not tell you

Whether your matter would resolve the same way. It would not — every case turns on its own facts and on the applicable law at the time. Treat these as a description of method, not a forecast.

Your matter

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