Business law office in Casablanca- MOROCCO

Hajji et associes est un cabinet d’avocat d’affaires international à Casablanca Maroc

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HAJJI & ASSOCIés

BUSINESS LAW OFFICE IN CASABLANCA MOROCCO

CLIENTS
Since its creation, Hajji & Associés has quickly stand out for it professorial skills to become a reference player in his discipline. Strong by the satisfaction of its clients and the quality of its services, the firm placed itself as a reference provider in professional services. Hajji & Associates firm includes in-house lawyers and the quality of its services is recognized across the leading law firms and international in-house lawyers from multinational firms.
LAWYERS
Hajji & Associés has built its internal organization around a culture that favours collaborative and cross-functional work. Indeed, the firm strives to create complementarity within its legal team to offer its clients services of excellence and high added value. In addition, Hajji & Associés is attentive to the personal and cognitive development of its lawyers, it provides them with training programs in Morocco and abroad, in order to stay connected of changes in the legal environment, and to share and infuse internally the new practices in force in the field of law.
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RELEVANT, CROSS-FUNCTIONAL AND TAILOR-MADE SERVICES

Hajji & Associés deploys an integrated approach encompassing all the data relating to the files of its clients in order to provide them with the development of best scenarios that suit their expectations.

MAIN BUSINESS FIELDS

LEGAL ADVICE & STUDIES
DISPUTE RESOLUTION & REPRESENTATION
ARBITRATION & MEDIATION
THE FIRM'S BUSINESS FIELDS

A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM

Hajji & Associés has been supporting its clients for nearly 28 years in key moments of their activities, outbreaks, growth and development by offering them its multidisciplinary skills and know-how, at national and international level.
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PUBLICATIONS

QUID JURIS

QUID JURIS

A PERIODIC LEGAL POINT OF VIEW ABOUT INTERESTING TOPICS.
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ARTICLES & COMMENTS

ARTICLES & COMMENTS

TEXTS WRITTEN BY FIRM LAWYERS AND PUBLISHED IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEGAL JOURNALS.
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Seminars & Conferences

SEMINARS & CONFERENCES

PARTICIPATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS OF THE FIRM'S LAWYER IN LAWS'S FIELD EVENTS . AT BOTH, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL.
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BOOKS & THESIS

BOOKS & THESIS

THE LEGAL LITERATURE IS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARATION, FOR A PUBLICATION IN THE NEAR FUTURE.


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  • INSIGHT

In Morocco or abroad

HAJJI & ASSOCIÉS HAS ALWAYS BEEN COMMITTED IN PROVIDING PERSONALIZED, CROSS-FUNCTIONAL AND HIGH VALUE-ADDED SERVICE TO ITS CLIENTS.

COMMERCIAL & CORPORATE LAW

PROJECTS FINANCING

AVIATION

FINANCIAL AND STOCKS MARKETS

TOURISM & HOTELS

ENERGY

TELE-COMMUNICATIONS

COMPANIES' RESTRUCTURING

INSOLVENCY

COMPLIANCE

PPP & PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

TAX

LABOR LAW

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

INSURANCE

ARBITRATION & MEDIATION

JUDICIAL LITIGATION

About us
  • 28 Bd Moulay Youssef, Casablanca 20070
  • +212 522 48 74 74​
  • info@ahlo.ma​

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  • 2022 HAJJI & ASSOCIés- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  • Commercial & corporate law
The field of predilection of Hajji & Associés law firm is related to the multiple international commercial contracts and to legal structuring locally required for the implementation of the investor’s aims.
Commercial and corporate law matters have been constantly used for the correct drafting of various commercial contracts and for the incorporation and assistance of commercial companies often created for this purpose. The majority of the firm’s lawyers have higher education in the said matters with numerous practical experiences, allowing the firm to be recognized as an undisputed reference in the legal community in Morocco.
  • Projects financing

The firm has developed first-rate relationship as local counsel of leading international public and private financial institutions, particularly in connection with the financing of important projects in the fields of tourism and hotels, energy, aviation, ports and telecommunications. The services rendered relate overall to the legal and financial structuring of such large-scale operations, including the negotiation and drafting of security documents, notably under Moroccan law.

The main example is the industrial upgrading of the hydrocarbon refinery of SAMIR for an amount of international and national financing which exceeded 600 million US dollars. The firm had recommended to its international financial institution clients to be very cautious in these financings regarding to the results of a legal due diligence that was not completely convincing and therefore could not validate the securities offered as a guarantee for these financings.
  • AVIATION

The aviation sector and particularly the aircrafts financing, is quite complex due to entanglement of multiple international and sometimes narrow national rules that should be included in any transaction in this field, such as the various types of aircraft financing contracts in multiple leasing modes, asset-based financing or others.

Hajji & Associés has been involved, since the beginning of its activities in 1996, in tens of transactions related to acquisitions, leases or novation on such assets. The firm’s clients are the main international operators in the aircraft trade, including leasing companies, international banks, international credit insurance companies, international insurers, airlines and aircraft manufacturers.
  • Financial and stocks markets
Practically all the plethora of international financial and banking operations with their obligatory components such as securities has been implemented by the firm as for example international bank financing, Eurobond issues or securities investments with Moroccan authorized intermediaries.
Moreover, the firm has a confirmed experience in respect of the commercial operations on raw material backed by derivatives negotiated on OTC or regulated markets. Besides, Hajji & Associés provides its expertise to portfolio companies such as foreign pension funds with respect to their investments in Morocco and ensures with the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC) the regulatory and legal monitoring of their activities.
  • Tourism & Hotels

Hajji & Associés has developed a confirmed expertise in both tourism and hotel activities. Important integrated tourism projects in the North and South of Morocco have resorted to the firm’s services from the beginning of the negotiation phase of the investment agreements with the Moroccan State to the projects implementation through the land acquiring, the equipment installation as well as the hotel and residential contracts conclusion with specialized managers and purchasers of real estate located in these complexes.

Specific services are rendered during the construction and marketing phases of tourist and hotel allotment and particularly in the negotiation of hotel management contracts and other related services. Also, tourism and residential projects carried out in joint venture between investors from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Moroccan real estate groups have also benefited from the firm’s legal assistance.
  • ENERGy

Since the launch in Morocco of main projects including renewable energy in particular, the firm has intervened over several years as counsel to the owner of the Noor solar power plants in Ouarzazate for the examination under local law of the legal conditions allowing to secure the various contracts that had to be concluded with the constructors, the offtakers, the national and international financial institutions involved in the project, and the local authorities.

In addition, several other wind renewable energy projects such as the Khalladi farm in the North of Morocco or photovoltaic projects have been assisted on all legal and contractual aspects by the firm on behalf of large industrial groups, international financial institutions and investment funds. The firm also acted as ONEE’ local counsel in the extension of the Safi 5 and 6 thermoelectric power plant.
  • telecommunications
Hajji & Associés has advised Middle East portfolio investors with respect the two major telecom operators Maroc Telecom and Meditel (newly Orange).
  • Companies' restructuring

Hajji & Associés intervenes on a regular basis on inter-companies’ M&A transaction, Partial Contribution of Assets, or joint-ventures with the implementation of legal due diligence followed by the drafting of appropriate contracts subject to Moroccan law in French and English language.

Besides, Hajji & Associés provides legal secretary services for several companies, in particular in relation to the drafting of corporate documents relating to the decisions of boards of directors or shareholders’ meetings and their registration with the relevant trade registry. Such an activity is mainly marked by strategic restructuring operations of large international groups with the deployment of the same scheme in Morocco, in the fields of confectionery, chemistry and distribution.
  • Insolvency

In the event a company faces difficulties that threaten its continuity, some legal measures should be considered, such as those relating to the prevention of company’s difficulties, which may be followed by process for the company’s reorganization or liquidation. The firm has intervened in various similar matters, the most recent and emblematic of which concerns the representation of a foreign investor for his claim of 220 million US dollars as well as the monitoring of all the actions undertaken by third parties, the judicial liquidator or the bankruptcy judge against the industrial unit of hydrocarbon refining that entered into liquidation.

The firm has intervened in various similar matters, the most recent and emblematic of which concerns the representation of a foreign investor for his claim of 220 million US dollars as well as the monitoring of all the actions undertaken by third parties, the judicial liquidator or the bankruptcy judge against the industrial unit of hydrocarbon refining that entered into liquidation.
  • Compliance
The compliance requirement of the economic operators, including foreign investors, to the legal provisions imposed by Moroccan law and subject to the control of several specific regulatory bodies such as the Competition Council, the National Authority for the Protection of Private Personal Data (CNDP), the Foreign Exchange Office (ODC) or the High Authority for Audiovisual Control (HACA), has led Hajji & Associés to provide the required legal assistance to its clients who are concerned about complying with the mandatory compliance rules, since any compliance default is often severely sanctioned by the said bodies.
Public law is often brought to the forefront in projects involving public entities such as public contracts, concessions or delegations of public services, PPP and often large projects established partially or totally on the state private or public land, involving sometimes the land, sea or air space of the Kingdom.
  • public-private-partnerships & Public procurement
For more than twenty years, Hajji & Associés has been making significant efforts in order to assist numerous foreign investors interested in the concession of public services such as the Tangier-Med port during its various development phases, the delegated management of cleaning services and management of public dumps in different cities in the country, the delegated management of public lighting in the cities of Marrakech and Fez, the preparation of bids in response to calls for tender in the form of public procurement contracts in several infrastructure area in Morocco.
Once the projects were validated or the bids awarded, the firm contributed with the investors’ external advisors for the implementation of the most suitable structural and contractual arrangements in order to comply in particular with the legal requirements of public law applying to these projects involving public entities.
  • Tax
Tax matters are often closely linked to legal matters and as such, the firm has necessarily had to intervene, within the limits of its competence, on relatively common questions relating to withholding taxes, and the applicable tax to income, companies, registration or VAT. On the other hand, all specific services such as the tax optimization or tax due diligence remain the responsibility of tax specialists, in particular the tax advisers. Similarly, tax litigation proceedings, which should be conducted before regional or national authorities and, in the event of disagreement, before the administrative courts, requires specific expertise from lawyers involved.
The firm has made a few forays into this area in the past. However, since May 2022, Hajji & Associés is committed along with a professional group including Moroccan tax advisers and a Moroccan lawyer specialized in international taxation, for the establishment of a professional group aiming to offer high value-added services in the tax area, both in terms of consulting and litigation. Such services that Hajji & Associés will offer within the framework of this professional group to its international clients should further strengthen the quality of service required in the framework of large international projects where legal and tax components are strategic and complementary.
  • Labor law
Relations between employees and their employers are subject to a labor code providing for mandatory provisions that should be abided by. Such relations require the drafting of specific employment contracts, whether they are for a fixed or undefined period or whether they concern persons of Moroccan or foreign nationality. The dispute situations between the parties to an employment contract are frequent and their solution through conciliation or judicial way is subject to a precise formalism. In practice, it is the practical exercise of labor law in all its components before the courts that allows to verify the true scope of some legal provisions with their correct implementation.
Hajji & Associés has assisted its clients for many years in all phases of formation, execution and termination of employment contracts, including litigation before the courts. Moreover, the granting by the employer, generally a subsidiary of a large international group, of various types of stock options in favor of some of its employees induces a number of prerequisites in relation with the authorization of the Foreign Exchange Office with significant tax and social security implications for both employer and employee.
  • INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
The protection of industrial property rights is required in many commercial contracts for distribution, technology transfer, product manufacturing, engineering, etc. The firm is frequently solicited to advise and assist clients in the drafting of contractual clauses related to the requirements of protection of patents, trademarks or designs.
The firm also offers services related to the registration and renewal of the holders’ rights with the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC). Moreover, a recurrent litigation arises between the contracting parties due to anti-competitive practices which are observed in the Moroccan market and thus, the firm is involved in representation of its clients before the courts to stamp out such practices and also to obtain a fair and equitable compensation.
  • INSURANCE
The risks incurred, in particular in large financing projects, require the underwriting by the involved parties of various types of insurance policies with local or foreign insurance companies, with often delegating the rights associated with these insurance contracts to third parties who have made a particular financial contribution to these projects. Losses caused by equipment or facility failures also lead to compensation actions that could occur before the court.
The firm has been involved in an interesting insurance and reinsurance dispute in which the insured party had contractually limited the amount of compensation it could grant to the injured party, but during the assessment phase of the damage caused by the insured’s negligence, the claims for compensation were multiplied by 200 on the basis of the latter’s tort liability.
  • Arbitration & Mediation

Hajji & Associés’  senior lawyers have intervened on several occasions in ad hoc or institutional arbitration disputes in Morocco and abroad as counsel for one party, as co-arbitrator or third party arbitrator appointed by the counsels of both parties or as experts specialized in Moroccan law. These services rendered particularly in pleadings in Arabic, French and English languages gave the idea to three members of the firm to constitute an arbitration institution named mizan which is totally independent from Hajji & Associés with the specificity of using digital technology in order to be adapted to the world evolutions following the health pandemic of 2020-2021.

The platforms of accelerated and ordinary digital arbitration are operational since June 2022 and the community of lawyers interested in these tools developed by Moroccan lawyers with a legalTech of the same nationality should expand gradually, knowing that the first phase of the year 2022 is dedicated in priority to arbitration in the areas of North Africa and the 17 the OHADA member countries. The Mediation as another means of dispute resolution is becoming a solution recommended by the firm in the litigation communicated by its clients.
  • Judicial litigation
Since the beginning of its professional activities, Hajji & Associés has represented its international clients represented by their subsidiaries or local branches before the courts of the Kingdom.
Commercial and social litigations are the most recurrent and thanks to a strict professional behavior based on an irreproachable ethics and a constant quality in the treatment of the litigious matters submitted to the concerned jurisdictions, the firm can be glad to have won a great majority of the litigations which were entrusted to it by its clients, the whole with a supported recognition of the professionals of the law community as judges, court clerks, lawyers or experts.