Corporate
Contentious & regulatory
Projects & private
Insights
Somalia’s full-service business law firm, and the local counsel through which the world’s leading firms and multinationals operate in the country.
A selection of the companies, institutions and international organisations MLO has advised, across technology, infrastructure, energy, finance and the development sector.
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Founded in 1983, and in full practice again since 2000 in support of Somalia’s reconstruction, Mogadishu Law Office has grown from a pioneering private practice into one of the foundations of the country’s legal landscape.
Somali law is pluralist. It draws on statute, on Shari’ah, and on the customary law known as Xeer, applied across the Federal Government, the Federal Member States and Somaliland. The firm’s practice is built on fluency in all three, so its advice is sound on paper and reliable in application.
The firm practises in Somali, English, Arabic and Italian, from eight offices across the country.
About the firmIn Somalia the written law and the applied law are not always the same thing. The firm’s value is knowing both.
A civil-law tradition supplemented by modern federal legislation, from the Companies Act to the Petroleum Law and the Labour Code, applied and tracked daily.
Paramount under the Constitution. It governs personal status, inheritance and Islamic finance, and the firm translates it into commercially sound outcomes.
Somalia’s customary law, still central to dispute resolution and often essential to settling a matter in a way that holds.
From the ports and the airways to energy, telecommunications and finance, the firm advises at every point where global business meets Somali law.
By practice area and by sector. Most client matters draw on both, so the firm is built to keep a single relationship coherent as a matter moves across corporate and contentious work.
All practice areasAn instruction from an international firm places its own client relationship in the hands of local counsel. More than 140 firms have placed that trust in MLO, many of them repeatedly, over a period of years.
Standing relationships across the ministries, the Registrar, the courts and the regulators. Capability on the ground, not advice from a distance.
More than 140 international law firms instruct MLO as their Somali counsel, many of them repeatedly over a period of years.
Somali, English, Arabic and Italian, so Somali law and foreign or international instruments are handled together in one place.
Statute, Shari’ah and customary law, read together and turned into commercial certainty.
Dozens of clients have run fifty or more matters with the firm; many more return again and again.
Four decades of subject-indexed work product means the firm rarely starts a question from scratch.
Co-counsel to a sovereign government in a European-seated international commercial arbitration of roughly 157 million euros under a public infrastructure contract. The firm contributed on Somali constitutional and administrative law, including the validity of commitments entered into without the approvals state institutions require.
Advised a global technology company on the licensing and regulatory framework for landing major international connectivity infrastructure, spanning submarine cable landing licences, infrastructure sharing and data-centre regulation across two jurisdictions.
Instructed through international counsel by a development finance institution to examine the legislative framework governing the concession of a major Somali port, assessing compliance with national procurement legislation and constitutional requirements.
Engagements are described in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of the firm’s clients.
Abdiwahid Osman Haji founded Mogadishu Law Office and has practised law in Somalia continuously since 1983.
Professor Aweis Osman Ahmed co-founded the firm and serves as its Managing Director, directing regulatory operations and institutional mandates.
Asha-Kin F. Duale is one of Somalia’s most senior lawyers, in practice since 1984, advising on constitutional and regulatory questions and the legislative work behind the country’s modern statutes.
Hawa A. Wehelie is an attorney admitted to the New York State Bar, pairing American legal training with a commitment to Somalia’s justice sector, and advising the firm on policy and commercial regulation.
Osman Osman advises multinational clients on corporate structuring and financial regulation.
Abdiasis Duale specialises in telecommunications regulatory reform across African markets.
The firm’s reading of the developments that move Somali business and its legal system, written by its own lawyers.
Somalia federal mining controls tighten with aggressive enforcement against unlicensed operations. Legal analysis for investors on new business compliance requirements.
Somalia business laws receive presidential approval including new Investment Law creating SOMINVEST agency and Payment System Law. Key changes for investors and businesses.
Somalia EAC membership transforms export-import regulations, creating new trade opportunities and compliance requirements for businesses in East African markets.
Somalia Parliament passes revised Anti-Piracy and Maritime Crime Law with 5-20 year penalties, strengthening enforcement for international shipping and business operations.
Somalia banking crisis creates major challenges for international business operations. Legal analysis of de-risking impacts, trade finance complications, and compliance requirements for investors.
Somalia investment opportunities expand through National Transformation Plan 2025-2029, EAC membership, and oil exploration. Legal guidance for businesses entering Somalia's market.
When a new law or regulation lands, the firm issues a formal release setting out what changed and what it means for clients operating in Somalia.
The new law amends Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of the Provisional Constitution.
The new law establishes a framework to protect the environment and manage natural resources sustainably.
The new law supports Somalia's integration into the East African Community and regional economic cooperation.
“For four decades this firm has given the world’s leading firms and their clients a dependable way to operate in Somalia, pairing authoritative command of Somali law with the commercial judgement international work demands. That continuity is the promise we make to every client.”
Each matter is described by its type and role, with the client’s identity withheld to preserve confidentiality.
Mogadishu Law Office works alongside foreign counsel to deliver the Somali-law component of a larger mandate: a registration, a transaction, a licensing question, or a dispute. The firm reports in the format your matter team already uses.
