Multi Lingual Legal Firm - Dr. Sonia Khan Solicitors

About

We deliver a quality and caring service to our clients within our multi-cultural and diverse communities.

We are a multi-lingual firm, able to converse in English, French, Bengali, Hindi and Urdu.

Over the years, at Dr Sonia Khan Solicitors, we have established an effective network of legal professionals, including consultants and advisors in order to assist our clients in their varied legal requirements, whether in the UK or Bangladesh.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Dr. Sonia Zaman Khan is the Principal Solicitor of Dr Sonia Khan Solicitors, specializing in all areas of family law. In addition, she handles matters of immigration law, civil litigation and employment law. Dr. Khan has a hands-on approach and provides a one-to-one quality service to her clients. Dr. Khan believes in long term client relationships thereby investing time and energy to understand her clients’ priorities, circumstances as well as their business, professional and personal realities. She is passionate about being a Solicitor, with over 15 years of standing and is committed to providing excellent services to her clients. Dr. Khan also regularly provides expert reports to the UK courts on Bangladeshi Laws, including aspects of Muslim family law including Shariah Law and socio-legal matters affecting UK immigration applications.

Being a dual-jurisdictional lawyer in the United Kingdom and in Bangladesh where she is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh since 1997, practicing in the areas of judicial review, family law, employment law, customs/VAT/tax matters, she has amassed extensive legal experience. She is a Partner of Jurists Chambers, Bangladesh since 2010. She previously worked in Hong Kong, as an In-House Legal Counsel in a private company, specializing in Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), having negotiated PPAs with the governments of Indonesia and Pakistan.

Having worked in the UK Third Sector for 10 years, she has also been a freelance socio-legal consultant, with non-governmental sectors both in the UK and Bangladesh, including Save the Children (UK) Fund, the World Bank, Transparency International (Bangladesh), Social Development Direct, Community Organisation Forum among others. She has authored several consultancy reports to her credit.

She graduated with an L.L.B Honours (1992) followed by a post-graduation LLM (1993) with a First from the University of Dhaka and was enrolled as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in 1997. Dr. Khan qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 2007, after her law school studies (QLTT) at BPP Law School in 2006. In 2015, Dr. Khan attained her doctoral degree (PhD), Law, from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, having written her thesis on an aspect of the constitutional law of Bangladesh. Her thesis was published in 2018 by Routledge, titled ‘The Politics and Law of Democratic Transition: Caretaker Government of Bangladesh’, and the book is widely available in the UK and overseas.

Her email addresses: [email protected] and/or [email protected]

Emeritus Professor of South Asian Laws, Professor Werner Menski, MA PhD, became a well-known expert on South Asian laws and taught at SOAS, University of London, from 1980-2014. He advises especially on complex immigration and family law matters. He is specialised in both Muslim and Hindu law, especially in the issues of personal status and family affairs, in migration, and in the relations between law, religion and culture. A Visiting Professor at several South Asian universities, he also maintains close links with universities in Japan and continental Europe.

He has published widely on comparative research on legal systems in Asia and Africa. Professor Menski has published over 200 articles since 1980 and his major books are: Islamic Family Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 3rd ed. 1998, with David Pearl); Modern Indian Family Law (Richmond: Curzon Press, 2001); Hindu Law. Beyond Tradition and Modernity (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003); Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2006); Interpreting Divorce Laws in Islam (Copenhagen: DJOF Publishing, 2012, with Rubya Mehdi and Jørgen S. Nielsen {Eds}). He has been the editor of South Asia Research (New Delhi: SAGE) since 2004 and is a member of numerous editorial advisory boards.

Mr. Abrar Ahmed is a recent law graduate who is working as a Paralegal with Dr. Sonia Khan Solicitors. He graduated from BPP University with a 2:1 in LLB (Hons). He has to his credit a Certificate of Achievement for being awarded one of the highest grades in Legal Research.

Mr. Ahmed’s skills include IT (including social media), administration and firm invoicing. He is dedicated and a keen learner.

His interests lie in volunteering in children/young adults’ hospices in London.

In his free-time, he enjoys watching Films/TV, listening to music/podcasts and reading.

The Founder and Managing Counsel of Jurists Chambers Mr. Muhammad Nawshad Zamir, Barrister, Lincoln’s Inn [1999]; Advocate, High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [1996] and Senior Advocate of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, is a Litigation Counsel in Bangladesh. He appears regularly in judicial review, tax matters, civil claims (including property, family and immigration law cases) before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. To his credit, Nawshad has participated in the largest ever tax dispute (in terms of amount at stake) for an FTSE-100 company in Bangladesh. He conducted the first ever workplace harassment along with constructive dismissal case. During his early career when he practised criminal law, he obtained the first order to have a DNA mapping in a rape case to ascertain the fatherhood of the child born, acting for the victim, in Bangladesh. Nawshad has other high-profile cases to his list including cases against Facebook, defending the former Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Parliament in graft cases, and ongoing medical negligence cases.

In addition to his court practice, he regularly works in international arbitration under UNCITRAL Rules, ICC Rules, and with matters involving Shariah law.

He acts as legal adviser to muti-national companies, international banks, Islamic banks, insurance companies, IT firms, telecom companies, and shipping companies. He has been the Specialist Contract Advisor to the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Center (IIFC). He was also the Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs. He provided expert legal opinion for the UK family courts.

Among other roles, he has worked for the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah as a lawyer on power projects, aircraft financing and ship building contracts amongst others, and for Harvard University’s Islamic Finance Information Program.

He is a contributor to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Nawshad holds an LLM from Harvard Law School and an MSc in Taxation from the University of Oxford.