About us

We are a young firm staffed by very experienced and highly qualified lawyers admitted in Afghanistan, the United States and Australia.

Our firm provides premium legal, regulatory, tax and government relations advisory services to businesses, investors, non-government organizations and government agencies.

Our firm's service is based on a deep understanding of our clients' requirements in the context of their operational and strategic objectives as well as our knowledge of, and extensive experience in, the unique Afghan legal and regulatory environment.

We work with our clients to build strong relationships. We attach great importance to accessibility. All our matters are properly resourced and effectively managed.

We understand that doing business in Afghanistan frequently involves dealing with the complexities of the Afghan Government.

We are used to engaging with ministers, parliamentary committees, regulators and senior administrators.

The 2 partners of our firm, Samir Satchu and Zmarak Zhouand, have a combined 11 years experience in Afghanistan and a further 11 years international experience.

Our clients benefit from our experience.

People


Samir Satchu

Partner
B.A Hons (Cambridge) J.D (Harvard)
Qualification: member New York State Board Association, New York, United States (1999)

Mr. Satchu has been working in the legal and regulatory environment in Afghanistan since 2003. Prior to establishing the firm in January 2011, Mr. Satchu was General Counsel & Head of Government Affairs at Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Limited ("Roshan" – one of Afghanistan's largest companies by revenue and tax contributions) where he worked between September 2003 and December 2010. Mr. Satchu headed Roshan's legal and government affairs team (comprising 3-4 expatriate lawyers, 3 Afghan lawyers and a government affairs team of 7) from December 2006 to December 2010.

Since January 2011, Mr. Satchu has represented clients in the telecommunications, financial services, aviation, security, logistics, and non-governmental sectors in Afghanistan on a range of commercial, corporate and tax matters.


Zmarak Zhouand

Partner
B.A (SCU) LL.B (UNE) GDLP (College of Law) ACAMS
Qualification: solicitor and barrister in New South Wales, Australia (2001)
Languages: English, Dari

Mr. Zhouand was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and immigrated to Australia with his family in 1982. He returned to Afghanistan in 2008.

Mr. Zhouand joined SZ as a partner in April 2011. Prior to SZ, and since June 2008, Mr. Zhouand was working with Roshan as its Senior Legal Counsel and was also in charge of the legal and regulatory function of Roshan's wholly owned subsidiary, M-Paisa. Mr. Zhouand acted as the Roshan Group's lead lawyer on a range of significant financing, corporate, commercial, tax and regulatory matters.

Mr. Zhouand worked with major Australian law firms between 2001 and 2008. In that time, he acted on a diverse range of corporate financings, acquisitions, disposals and projects in Australasia and South East Asia as well as significant banking and general commercial litigation matters.

In Australia, Mr. Zhouand's clients included 3 of the top 4 Australian banks and other large national and international corporate organizations. In Afghanistan, Mr. Zhouand's clients include major businesses across several sectors including telecommunications and financial services, private security companies, logistics companies, foreign investors and non-governmental organizations.