The Sri Lankan economy and therefore its legal system has traditionally been influenced by the island’s colonial past. Thus, the legal profession in Sri Lanka was traditionally divided into two fractions based on functionality influenced by a similar divide in the English Legal system.The Advocates who appeared in court and made oral submissions on the one hand and Proctors who handled the paper work and other procedural aspects of litigation they also attended to the conveyancing of property and other deed work being the other.
In the early 1970’s the government of Sri Lanka introduced a ceiling on the maximum extent of land that may be privately owned, nationalising thousands of hectares agricultural lands. This change was later supplemented by the liberalisation of the economy in the late 1970’s unlocking the true potential of the Sri Lankan economy. As a result of this Sri Lanka moved from a primarily plantation based economy established by its colonial past to a much more vibrant service and production based corporate economy.
Alongside these changes in the mid 1970’s the two arms of the legal profession were merged and unified. Thus for all legal purposes eliminating such distinction and all lawyers in Sri Lanka are presently officially referred to as Attorneys at Law. However, for all practical purposes this distinction was maintained and those attorney’s carrying on the functions of an Advocate are referred to as Counsel and the Proctors ‘Instructing Attorneys’. This separation has retained its virtues for the most part when dealing in litigation in courts of Sri Lanka.
In the wake of a corporate economy and professional changes within a short span of less than a decade the nature of the profession was completely reshuffled. The scope of substantive law practice outside of courts has since then gradually evolved and extended vastly beyond the usual procedural or conveyancing practice of that an instructing attorney is usually accustomed to. Therefore, services of many a Counsel were sought for legal advice on substantive law matters which did not involve court proceedings.
While the law firms traditionally performing the work of instructing attorneys and conveyancing of property developed vibrant advisory teams that advised a local and international corporate clientele over the decades ensuing the changes in the economy. The lager number of lawyers within such firms enabled them to provide a wide range of services with experts in different practice areas and across multiple industries enjoying a significantly dominant position over the out of court substantive law advisory practice.
While many Counsel sought to penetrate this lucrative area of work, they have been unsuccessful for many a reason including of lack of experience in the broader scope of the multiple practice groups or the lack of expertise across different industries and the lack of infrastructure that a legacy law firm would have the benefit of.
The Firm is spearheaded by a group of Partners who, together possess several years of experience in a wide range of legal services. Individually each partner is experienced and skilled in their selected areas and possess a minimum of two or more qualifications in law allowing the firm to deliver multi faceted yet experienced solutions. Consisting of second and third generation lawyers the firm places a heavy emphasis on providing an expeditious service through the use of evolved methodologies.
Gregory's Partners is a boutique full service legal practice that is a collective of Counsel with expertise in different practice areas and industries. We bring together talent and expertise tailor made for each assignment or project at hand, allowing a much wider range of expertise and experience to be available at our disposal which is sometimes even wider than that of a legacy full service law firm which is limited to their in-house legal teams. Due to the wide base of consultant counsels who work with Gregory's Partners, each of the counsel who is engaged through us has access to a vast resource pool most often exceeding the capacity of a legacy law firm.
To provide our clients with tailor made legal solutions efficiently and expeditiously and contribute toward their corporate or individual objectives with uncompromised integrity.
To create a legal practice that goes beyond the boundaries of tomorrow.
Areas of practice: Commercial Law / Corporate Law / Labour Law / Mergers and Acquisitions / Private Equity / Capital Markets / Investments/ Technology Law / Shipping Law / Foreign Direct Investment etc.
Mr. Karunaratne started his practice as corporate lawyer as part of a legacy law firm with experience in a wide scope of providing legal advisory services across the corporate commercial law practice in Sri Lanka. Servicing many multinational clients and large local business houses alike across multiple industries and working with legal professionals representing leading law firms, investment banks etc. He has significant experience in corporate and commercial litigation in Sri Lanka in multiple industries.
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Areas of practice: Commercial Law / Corporate Law / Public Private Partnerships / Build Operate and Transfer/ Conveyancing / Company Secretary/ Real Estate Management.
Mr. Liyanage handles real estate, property management, conveyancing and corporate related services for both local and international clients. He services a clientele with G2G and B2B Business Development requirements and is also an Advisor to the Women’s and Children’s Affairs and Dry Zone Development Ministry of Sri Lanka.
Gregory's Partners is a boutique full service legal practice that is a collective of Counsel with expertise in different practice areas and industries. We bring together talent and expertise tailor made for each assignment or project at hand, allowing a much wider range of expertise and experience to be available at our disposal which is sometimes even wider than that of a legacy full service law firm which is limited to their in-house legal teams. Due to the wide base of consultant counsels who work with Gregory's Partners, each of the counsel who is engaged through us has access to a vast resource pool most often exceeding the capacity of a legacy law firm.
Our firm is proud to announce that for the year 2019-20 we are extending a supporting hand towards locally owned tech-startups, design and artistic initiatives are entitled to a waiver up to 35% on all our fees. We have initiated this project in line with the vision of our firm.
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