SME

We look forward to working with you!

We are SME LAW, a professional commercial law firm based in Baku.

Contacts

info@smelaw.az

Practice areas

Contracts

Drafting, reviewing, amending, negotiating or termination of various types of contracts.

Corporate

Legal assistance on registration, liquidation, reorganization of legal entities, mergers, acquisitions, insolvency, bankruptcy, preparation of corporate documents.

More Services

Our team

RUSLAN MUKHTAROV

Managing Partner

Our team

Our history

We look forward to working with you!

2009

A group of lawyers sets up a special group to deal with the problems of SME businesses.

2012

The number of experts joining the group increased dramatically who were actively participating in various SME projects.

2016

The group was actively involved in various national SME business related initiatives.

2019

The group was officially registered as a full services law firm.

Story so far

We continue strictly following our goals and targets. Not an easy task we have to admit, but despite all challenges and difficulties we remain focused to preserve our success story and grow further bringing more value to our clients.

2009

2012

2016

2019

Story so far

Our Main Values

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Our Main Values

Client’s success first

We treat our client’s success as our own one. We see no other way to be a prosperous law firm other than working hard to be responsible for the client’s operating in a legally safe and friendly environment.

Our experience should always benefit

Some of our clients’ assignments could be new or even challenging for us. However, we refrain from charging you for every experience that we have got while finding a solution to your legal problem. We value only the experience which we were able to convert into your benefit.

Even small business should be able to afford

Many prosperous and successful companies have grown-up from small startups. If you run a small business with feasible and promising projects, we will have a special offer for you which you will be happy to accept.

Quality is always

High quality is our special value deserved by any client. Whatever deal we have made with you, we will work on your assignment as hard as needed to deliver a high-quality product.

Our Main Values

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About us

We are SME LAW, a professional commercial law firm based in Baku. SME LAW was set up in 2009 as an initiative by market experts for a support of local small and medium enterprises and officially registered as a law firm in 2019. Starting from that time we are successfully building our national reputation. Our reputation is built not only on rendering best professional advice and services, but also doing it hugely with our personality, enthusiasm and unique approach. At SME LAW we do believe that no client is the same and we are distinguished from others by our distinctive corporate character and personal commitment to our clients. Our goal is to provide our clients services they need rather than the one we want to offer.

Although we are young yet dynamic law firm, we are an excellent choice for small and medium size clients. We are small yet, but we are agile and our experts are capable of dealing with the most complex legal matters. Our size gives us a great benefit to offer highly personalised bespoke services to each client.

No doubts small and medium size businesses operate in most pressured commercial environment. If you think that your business needs a professional support of commercial-minded lawyers who genuinely understand the needs of small and medium size businesses, then the team at SME LAW is able to help. We perfectly understand small and medium businesses’ needs and demands, as we are aware that legal support for such businesses is not the same as for big businesses. Understanding and anticipating opportunities and problems is the key for us in the process of finding effective solutions for small and medium businesses. This is an important part of the service that we deliver at SME LAW, where we have specialist legal expertise in the areas of law relevant to small and medium size businesses.

Our fees are flexible enough and highly competitive compared to big law firms. However, our competitive fee structures do not affect the high quality of our services. All our lawyers are high calibre all having experience in big law firms before joining SME LAW.

Practice areas

SME LAW PRACTICE AREAS

Small and medium businesses like their larger counterparts need lawyers who tailor their advice to their requirements. This is the most important and critical issue for us at SME LAW delivering our services, where we have specialist legal expertise in the areas of law relevant to small and medium businesses. Our expertise includes, amongst other things:

Have any questions?

Contracts

Drafting, reviewing, amending, negotiating or termination of various types of contracts.

Corporate

Legal assistance on registration, liquidation, reorganization of legal entities, mergers, acquisitions, insolvency, bankruptcy, preparation of corporate documents.

Intellectual Property law

Drafting license agreements for IP objects, registration, expertise and protection of IP objects such as trademarks and domain names.

Migration

Obtaining and extending visas, work permits and temporary residence permits, permanent residence permits, legal advice on dual citizenship, issues to be considered for moving to Azerbaijan, immigration border issues.

Our team

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Our team

RUSLAN MUKHTAROV

Managing Partner

Highly regarded leading lawyer with 15 years legal experience with top tier big law firm. Ruslan Mukhtarov has an immense experience in solution of wide range of the most complicated legal matters. Ruslan is marked as one of the most active and talented lawyers with his capacity to find the best effective solutions for clients. Having great experience of representing a range of clients from individual clients to major corporations, he is regarded by clients as a valuable external asset. He has an unrivalled experience in representing foreign investors in Azerbaijan in various real estate and manufacturing industry related major investment projects. Ruslan is also one of the key local experts in SME corporate legal affairs sector. He has also a unique forensic legal audit services experience.

Apart from his universal experience he is also specialized in advising medical institutions and IT sector.

Education

2017 to 2019 – LLM in International Trade and Commercial Law, Nottingham Trent University (UK)

2002 to 2008 – LLM and LLB in International Law, Baku State University (Azerbaijan)

Languages

Azerbaijani/Turkish

Russian

English

Association

2019 – Admitted to Azerbaijani Bar

2006 – Admitted to Legal Practice

Awards

2005- “The Best Speaker” Award at the National Competition of the International Humanitarian Law (Azerbaijan)

ELDAR MAJIDOV

External Counsel

Highly regarded leading lawyer with 20 years of legal experience in big law firms, as executive corporate lawyer and freelance legal expert at major international organisations. Eldar Majidov has an immense experience in provision of legal assistance to foreign companies and small and medium businesses of Azerbaijan. Legal advice of Eldar Majidov comprises wide range of measures protecting clients against claims and penalties with focus on taxation and other legal risks. Eldar Majidov is among those few lawyers of Azerbaijan specialized intensely in electronic commerce and contracting and regulatory aspects of application of IT technologies. Eldar is one of few legal experts often engaged by major international law firms for Azerbaijani legal expertise in international litigation and arbitration cases.

Eldar is also marked as one of few IT Law academic experts lecturing at Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry.

Education

2007 to 2008 – LLM in Commercial Law, Maastricht State University (The Netherlands)

1993 to 1997 – LLB in International Law, Baku State University (Azerbaijan)

Languages

Azerbaijani/Turkish

Russian

English

German

Association

Since 1997 – Admitted to Legal Practice

Since 2017 – IT Law Lecturer at Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry

Since 2021 – Lecturer at ADA University

A TEAM YOU CAN TRUST

Our team is made up of commercial lawyers who are selected for their background and personality.

Our team

KHADIJA IMRANOVA

Junior Associate

Khadija is a young and very talented member of the SME Law’s team. She is among a few young specialists in the local market who is professionally interested in IP and IT law. Khadija plans to be one of the best leading experts in corporate law as a participant and winner of several moot court competitions.

Education

2017 – 2021 – LLB in Law, Baku State University (Azerbaijan)

2020 – “Copyright Law” and “Trademark Law” Courses, University of Pennsylvania (US)

2019 – Participant of first JESSUP Azerbaijan Summer School on Public International Law

2019 – Participant at Batumi Summer School on Constitutional Law

2018 – Participant at U.S. Media and Law Seminar Series held by U.S. Embassy Baku

Languages

Azerbaijani/Turkish

English

Awards

2021 – Member of the team from Azerbaijan at Telders International Law Moot Court Competition (Respondent memorandum ranked 5th place)

2020 – Member of the first team from Azerbaijan at Telders International Law Moot Court Competition – (Applicant memorandum ranked 9th place)

2019 – Semi – finalist at European Human Rights Moot Court Simulation

2018 – Semi – finalist at Topchubashov Moot Court Competition

Winner of Azercell LLC Scholarship Program

Winner of Haydar Aliyev Scholarship

ULVI ALIYEV

Junior Associate

Ulvi Aliyev is a Russian law qualified lawyer with 2+ years experience. He practiced law both in consulting and in-house, being involved in advising clients on different areas of law. Previously he worked for the international law firm, which is a TOP-3 legal advisor in Russia by number of major public deals closed during the last year. He was involved on the transaction raising a total USD 190 million from pre-existing and new investors including the Mubadala Investment Company, SberInvest, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. As a member of OECD-Russia center, his busy practice also includes Decentralized Finance regulation.

Ulvi specializes in investment projects, M&A deals, banking & finance, intellectual property, technology and data protection.

Education

2021 – present – Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (PhD, Moscow, Russia)

2019 – 2021 – Private Law Research Centre under the President of the Russian Federation named after S.S. Alexeev (Master of private law, Moscow, Russia)

2015 – 2019 – LLB in Law, Altai State University (Barnaul, Russia)

Languages

Azerbaijani

Russian

English

Awards

Member of the Russia-OECD center, 2022

Scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation for the 2020/2021 academic year

Winner of the final stage of the All-russian Student Competition

2019 Winning the competition at the X International Youth Legal forum 2019

Participation in the final stage of the third RAA Online Arbitration competition 2018

Publications in journals included in Web of Science and Scopus