Derrick K. Kizito

 BACKGROUND

Derrick is a Legal Trainee within the Litigation department of MMAKS Advocates. He is actively involved in courtroom advocacy and focuses on debt recovery, employment law, intellectual properties, and commercial litigation. Derrick also provides Alternative Dispute Resolution advice for the firm’s corporate clients and has represented various clients in both local and international arbitration, mediation, and reconciliation proceedings. Derrick also has expertise in Intellectual Property Law, Data Protection and Privacy, Employment and Immigration, Equity Financing, Insolvency, Not-for-Profit and routinely advices on these in the firm.

Derrick has interest in the intersection between law and technology and how technology can be leveraged to improve the practice of law, access to justice, and ensure expeditious resolution of disputes. He has participated and won various legal hackathons such as the HIIL 2019 Kampala Legal Hackathon.

He holds a Second Upper Class Bachelor of Laws Degree from Makerere University and First-Class Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre. Derrick is a recipient of the Chief Justice Award as the best Uganda Bar Course student 2019/2020.

MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

• Advocate, High Court of Uganda
• Member, Uganda Law Society
• Member, East Africa Law Society
• Member, Young ICCA
• Member, Africa Arbitration Academy
• Member, LCIA YIAG

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Law Development Centre, Uganda
• LL.B (Hons.), Makerere University, Uganda

CAREER SUMMARY

• AUG 2021 – DATE Legal Trainee, MMAKS Advocates, Uganda
• MAY 2021 - JUL 2021 Legal Assistant, Signum Advocates, Uganda
• JUN 2021 - APR 2021 Legal Intern, Signum Advocates, Uganda

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Commercial Litigation
• Employment and Immigration
• Debt Recovery
• Family, Estate and Trusts law
• Data Protection and Privacy
• Not-for-Profit

TOP MATTERS

• Successfully defended an international construction company against a claim of USD 1,000,000 by a subcontractor in arbitration proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
• Acting for a leading technology company in Uganda against an international technology company in arbitration proceedings before the Centre for Arbitration and Disputes Resolutions - Kampala to recover a sum of USD 1,600,000 arising from breach of a Teaming Agreement.
• Acting for the Central Bank of Uganda in a suit in which the Plaintiffs who were Shareholders in a defunct Bank seek to recover USD 11M and UGX 250B in relation to the liquidation of a commercial bank.
• Acting for a financial institution an Appeal in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the decision of the High Court and Court of Appeal which awarded the appellant over 1.8B UGX in general damages for unlawful registration of mortgages on its title.
• Acting for the Central Bank of Uganda is a suit in which the Plaintiff seeks to recover UGX 5B which was allegedly overdrawn on its accounts held in one of the commercial banks in Uganda. The Plaintiff alleges breach of statutory duty against the central bank for the alleged failure to act on its missive about the transaction.
• Acting for a global hotel chain against a claim of in excess of USD 800,000 by one of its contractors in arbitration proceedings before the Centre for Arbitration and Disputes Resolutions Kampala.
• Acting for an international energy fund against a labour claim in excess of USD 1 Million by a former employee in the senior management team.
• Successfully defending a leading bank against a claim of USD 375,000 arising from an alleged breach of the terms of a performance guarantee.
• Acting for a leading financial institution in the recovery of USD 565,000 being an advance payment made to a contractor contracted to build a risk management system.
• Advising a US based not-for-profit organization on its registration and licensing in Uganda.
• Advising a leading multinational Internet Service Provider on the regulatory framework on data protection and privacy in Uganda and drafting its data protection and privacy policy.
• Acting as part of the team that conducted a due diligence on technology company start up in Uganda on behalf of leading US based technology company that intended to invest about USD 2,000,000 in the start up and also advised on the data protection regime in Uganda.