BM Morrison Partners (BM) is the first private law firm established in the independent Azerbaijan. Today, we combine best examples of legal knowledge, expertise, and professional experience.
The Firm was founded in February 1992 by the late Mr Jamal Baghirov and became the first private law firm established in the Republic of Azerbaijan (independent, as of October 1991, from USSR). Even before 1992, the Firm was established in 1989 as a cooperative, the only permitted form of individual entrepreneurship in the Soviet Union at that time. For over 25 years of its existence, BM has been among traditional market leaders in Azerbaijan.
The Firm has extensive experience in almost every area of law with a particular emphasis on energy, banking and finance, corporate and employment laws, taxation, antimonopoly, and real estate. We have a proven success record of helping foreign and domestic clients alike materialise the opportunities that cross-border investments bring.
Over the period of its history, BM and its lawyers have been exposed and gained a great deal of experience in almost every area of law. We represent clients in both commercial and not-for-profit sectors, both domestic and foreign from almost every industry area active in Azerbaijan.
Notably, our lawyers are among those rare who (i) advised foreign clients on first privatisation and natural resource concession projects in Azerbaijan, (ii) advised a local airline in the first purchase of Boeing aircraft, (iii) advise pioneer investors from Azerbaijan entering foreign markets, (iv) worked in a project involving Azerbaijan under the Kyoto Protocol, and (v) worked on various other “first-ever” deals, such as debut Eurobond issuances by Azerbaijani corporates and the first national telecommunication satellite.
BM has unrivalled experience in representing international and regional financial institutions and organisations. The Firm also advises well-known brand manufacturers on numerous matters including employment, HSSE, taxation, and corporate matters.
BM successfully represented a number of major foreign businesses in mergers and acquisitions advising them on competition and merger control issues and on impacts of the antimonopoly (antitrust) regulations. BM’s senior staff acted as special rapporteurs in a number of anti-money laundering projects for the large international financial institutions. The Firm advises a consortium of leading US and UK companies and top international law firms on Azerbaijani anti-corruption legislation.
Most of our lawyers are graduates or currently pursue legal degree studies at the leading Western law schools.
We are fluent in the Azerbaijani, English, and Russian languages and have a good command of other languages, such as French and Arabic.
Among specific rankings, BM lawyers are recognised among the best practitioners in Azerbaijan by the world’s leading legal directories, such as Chambers Global, The Legal 500, IFLR1000, and Who’s Who Legal. BM and its lawyers are recommended by them among the market leaders in Azerbaijan.
BM is a winner in the “Law Firm of the Year” nomination of the Azeri Business Award for 2013 founded by the Business Time magazine.
We share our clients’ passion and do our best to speak their language whether those are the clients investing in or outside of Azerbaijan.
Mr Baghirov is the founder of the Firm.
He graduated from the faculty of law of the
Azerbaijan State University in 1967. In 1970-1977,
Mr Baghirov held political public service positions in
Azerbaijan before becoming in 1980 an inspector for
especially important cases in the Office of
Public Prosecutor of Krasnodar district, the Russian
Federation.
In 1981, Mr Baghirov became a member of the Azerbaijan Bar Association.
Around that same time, he left the public service to start his legal practice.
After the independence of Azerbaijan from the USSR, at the age of 50, he
turned his private legal practice into the first law firm in Azerbaijan.
Throughout his career, Mr. Baghirov was a trusted advisor to major clients,
both local and foreign. Mr. Baghirov practiced law for more than 30 years
until his death in September 2011.
