Three law firms in Shs 390m fight over legal fees

The law firm of Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates has dragged that of Muwema and Company Advocates to the Law Council for professional misconduct.

The two firms, along with Bashasha & Co. Advocates, are embroiled in a fight for Shs 390m from the ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs. Lawyers from Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates accuse the other law firms of trying to reap from where they did not sow.

GENESIS

Back in 2010, 52 army air force retirees led by Lt Col Vincent Mugyenyi, Maj Sichon Nambale, Tom Butime [Tourism minister] and the now late Maj Gen Zeddy Maruru, petitioned court through Bashasha and Company Advocates to have their terminal benefits paid.

Their benefits were calculated to be Shs 6.7 billion. In 2017, court sided with the retirees and directed the ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs to pay them. Edith Butuuro, the Defence ministry’s undersecretary, Finance and Administration, was the assigned accounting officer while Denis Barigye, the assistant commissioner of accounts in the ministry, was the coordinator.

However, distribution of the benefits sparked a rift between the retirees and Bashasha, whom they felt did not deserve to partake the Shs 1.9bn as legal fees. Court had posted the money on their lawyers’ account in February 2018 before distributing it to the beneficiaries. It is from this standoff that both parties severed ties.

Documents seen by The Observer indicate that on May 26, 2021, the retirees turned to Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates and the two parties entered into a three-year memorandum of understanding for the law firm to represent them in a case against government, where they were now seeking to have their pension paid.

On behalf of the retirees, the MoU was signed by Nambale, as the chairman of the recovery committee for the retirees, and Capt Aloysius Muwagga, the secretary. Both parties went on to notify the Attorney General and the Defence ministry of the instructions. After several meetings with ministry officials, it was consented that the retirees be paid Shs 4bn, but before they could get the payment, Capt Muwagga passed on yet he was a principal signatory on behalf of the retirees.

A retiree who preferred anonymity, said lawyers had to pay Maj Nambale Shs 75m for him to produce Mu- wagga’s National ID. The retirees eventually received in 2022.

NEW TWIST

However, in a May 16, 2023 letter to the ministry, Wanda, Sakwa and Company advocates noted that under pension regulations, their clients deserved to have been paid an annual six per cent interest for the years the pension delayed. It is from this anomaly that they informed the retirees before pursuing the said payment from the Defence ministry.

This triggered a Shs 3.9bn windfall for the retirees each of whom got payment by June 26, 2023. However, at the time of the expiration of the financial year on June 30, the ministry had not yet completed the payment of the law firm’s Shs 390m, which is the 10 per cent in legal fees.

That meant that the law firm would have to get their payment in the new financial year. But on August 2, 2023, Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates claim they received a letter from Muwema and Company Advocates advising Butuuro to stop the payment on grounds that Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates did not have instructions from the retirees.

They attached a document signed by Nambale in May, 2023 withdrawing instructions but it has no stamp of receipt from the ministry or Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates.

Indeed, Butuuro withheld the payment to Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates until the law firms sort out their issues. Wanda, Sakwa and Company Advocates insist that the documents withdrawing their instructions that Muwema relied on were backdated forgeries, not received by the firm or Butuuro.

“We have learnt that Muwema Co. Advocates even provided their banking details to the ministry so that they are paid our money. We consider the above conduct by our colleagues to be professional misconduct and in this regard invite the Law Council to invoke its powers to bring them to order for the good of the profession,” reads part of the petition.

Interviewed for this story, Andrew Oluka of Muwema & Co. Advocates said al- legations that they forged and backdated termination letters are not true.

“I wrote to the ministry notifying them that we have been instructed to take over the handling of this matter. I attached a termination letter dated June 4, 2022 and I was courteous enough to copy Sakwa and Company Advocates who received a copy of that letter but they have never written to us or the ministry. They should write to us and say, please we still have instructions over this matter,” he said.

“If Sakwa and Company Advocates worked for another amount of money and is yet to be paid, as a lawyer, we are not allowed to clamor on someone’s legal fees. Why should I earn from what I didn’t work for? They should pursue their former client, not us. I was just instructed to represent them and my interest is to pursue the remaining emoluments,” Oluka said.

Amidst all this, sources at the ministry indicate that Bashasha and Company Advocates have also joined the fray and petitioned the ministry to have a share of the Shs 390m. At the moment, all sides are locked in a stalemate.