About Us
Who We Are
We are Hove & Quill.
A commercial law firm in Kampala and Gulu, for clients whose business crosses borders.
Hove & Quill is a commercial law firm practising from Kampala and Gulu for clients whose business runs across East Africa and beyond it. We advise companies at every stage of their life, from the first incorporation to the acquisition, the licence, the dispute and the exit, and we stay with them between those events. Our partners and consultants hold admissions in Kampala, Nairobi, Kigali, London and New York, so a client whose question starts in Uganda and ends in Delaware or Luxembourg deals with one team.
We hold ourselves to a published standard. Every opinion we give is verified against the current revised edition of the Laws of Uganda and the authorities it cites, every pleading is capable of being filed as delivered, and every transaction document is drafted to withstand the scrutiny of the counterparty’s counsel. Hove & Quill Advocates is regulated by the Law Council of Uganda.
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Jurisdictions of admission: Kampala, Nairobi, Kigali, London and New York
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Practice areas and a research arm, from Kampala and Gulu
What We Do
Seven practice areas and a research arm.
The firm is organised in seven practice areas, set out below, supported by a research arm that takes on the instructions that cut across them: legislative analysis, comparative regulatory studies and the data work behind the construction practice. We act for payment companies and start-ups, banks and insurers, contractors and mining companies, non-governmental organisations and private clients. Much of the work is in the industries that will carry Uganda's Vision 2040: financial services, infrastructure, energy and minerals, and the technology that connects them to the rest of the world. Every instruction, whichever practice it comes from, is assessed for risk by certified risk practitioners and for tax by the firm's tax consultants before the advice is given.
Uganda Vision 2040
Uganda's plan for a USD 500 billion economy by 2040, and the legal work it will take.
Read MoreWhere We Operate
Kampala and Gulu, a cloud office, and an international referral network.
We practise from Kampala and Gulu, with a cloud office through which clients instruct us, track their matters and receive their documents from anywhere. Members of the team are admitted in Kampala, Nairobi, Kigali, London and New York, and the firm belongs to an international referral network through which we instruct and are instructed by counsel in the jurisdictions where our clients raise capital, hold companies and move money. A Ugandan client expanding into Kenya or Rwanda, or a foreign investor entering Uganda, works with one partner who carries the matter across every border it crosses.
How We Work
Terms in writing before the work starts, and a partner who carries the matter to its end.
We work in writing. A client receives an engagement letter that fixes the scope and the fee before work begins, a named partner with conduct of the matter, and advice that gives its conclusion in the first paragraph. Documents leave the firm ready to be signed or filed. Fees are agreed in advance, on a fixed, capped or retainer basis wherever the work allows it, and otherwise under the Advocates (Remuneration and Taxation of Costs) Regulations.
Two disciplines run through every instruction. Certified risk practitioners sit within the team, so each matter is scoped, advised and priced against the legal, regulatory, financial and operational risks it carries, and the client knows where the exposure lies and what it costs to remove. Tax consultants sit within the team too, so no structure, contract or transaction is advised on until its tax consequences have been worked through, and the same people conduct our tax health checks and handle our clients' dealings with the Uganda Revenue Authority.
Alongside the advice, the firm supplies the apparatus that keeps a company in good standing between matters: the governance framework, the policy suite, the compliance calendar, the contract templates and the company secretarial function, maintained as the law and the business change. The firm's portal shows a client every matter, invoice and document in one place, the construction platform quantifies a contractor's position before a dispute is referred, and the research arm's briefings put the economic context beside the legal answer. We expect the relationship to outlast the matter that started it.
Our Leadership
Kelvin Balyebuga,
Kelvin Balyebuga,
Managing Partner
Kelvin Balyebuga is the Managing Partner of Hove & Quill and heads the firm’s Dispute Resolution and Tax Advisory practice. An Advocate of the High Court of Uganda, he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Taxation and Revenue from the East African School of Taxation and is reading for an LLM in International Energy and Policy Law at Uganda Christian University. His practice is in tax disputes before the Uganda Revenue Authority and the Tax Appeals Tribunal, in commercial and corporate governance litigation and in financing arrangements for banks and other lenders, and he designs and runs the firm’s clerkship and internship programme.
Meet Kelvin Balyebuga
What We Stand For
Our Vision
A Ugandan firm held to the standard of the international firms its clients also instruct, with the knowledge of the ground that those firms do not have.
Our job is to understand what a client is building, to identify what could stop it, and to remove or price that risk before it does.
Our Purpose
Our Principles
Six commitments, applied on every instruction.
In writing, to a standard
Scope and fee are fixed in an engagement letter before work begins, and one named partner has conduct of the matter from the first call to the last filing.
Verified law
Every opinion is checked against the current revised edition of the Laws of Uganda and the authorities it cites, and every authority is verified on the Uganda Legal Information Institute before it is relied on.
Risk, assessed first
Each matter is scoped, advised and priced against the legal, regulatory, financial and operational risks it carries, by a team that includes certified risk practitioners.
Tax, worked through
Tax consultants form part of the advisory team from the outset, and no structure, contract or transaction is advised on until its tax consequences have been worked through.
Fees agreed in advance
Fixed, capped or retainer wherever the work allows it, and otherwise under the Advocates (Remuneration and Taxation of Costs) Regulations.
Systems, not only advice
The governance documents, policies, compliance calendar, contract templates and company secretarial function that keep a company in good standing, maintained as the law and the business change.