Désiré Basset SC

Desire Basset read law at Balliol College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn in 1975. He was sworn in before the Supreme Court of Mauritius and admitted to the Mauritius Bar in the same year. He joined the Attorney General's Office in 1976 and in 1981 moved to the judicial service where he served as Magistrate, Senior Magistrate and as Presiding Magistrate of the Industrial and Intermediate Courts. In 1986, he moved to the banking sector. After training in banking with the BNP Group in France, he worked as branch manager with BNP'I' in Mauritius. With the emergence of the Stock Exchange in 1988, he moved from banking to corporate business and he took up a managerial position with KPMG looking after M & A's and corporate issues. He returned to the Bar in 1990. In 1994, he was appointed Senior Counsel.

His areas of practice include company law, industrial law and civil litigation. He appears regularly before the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal as well as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Apart from practice at the Bar, he offers legal consultancy services including drafting and vetting of contracts and advising on legal aspects of transactions to various companies. Clients include the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, Air Mauritius, Mauritius Telecom, Summertimes, KPMG and the Financial Services Commission.

He is a member of the Electoral Supervisory Commission and Electoral Boundaries Commission since 1992. He conducted several public enquiries ranging from the Prisons system to the security aspects in the conduct of examinations held by the Mauritius Examination Syndicate.

He is a member of the panel of Arbitrators of the Mauritius Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Nandraj Patten

Nandraj Patten holds a LLB (First Class) Honours degree from the University of Mauritius. He joined the Mauritius Bar in October 1995.

Prior to practising law, Mr. Patten was involved in town planning, with a career in the public sector. He has also worked as a private Planning and Environmental Consultant.

His main areas of practice are planning and environmental law, valuation law, tax law, constitutional and administrative law and human rights. He has appeared before the Courts of Mauritius, including appeal cases before the Supreme Court of Mauritius. Mr. Patten has also appeared before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

In addition to litigation work, Mr. Patten offers legal consultancy services to firms involved in planning and environmental studies, property development and the construction sector.

Sanjeev K. Kalachand

Sanjeev K. Kalachand read law at the London School of Economics. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1999 (Inner Temple) and to the Bar of Mauritius in 2000.

Sanjeev practices general corporate and commercial law at advisory level. His practice areas include company law, advice on commercial transactions,  and the drafting and review of commercial contracts. Sanjeev also advises on regulatory matters, and has appeared before the Financial Services Review Panel.

He has acted as in-house counsel to the largest offshore management company in Mauritius, and is, currently, in independent practice. 

Sanjeev was a member of the Steering Committee on the liberalisation of the provision of legal services to the financial services sector which was set up by the Government of Mauritius.

He is a member of the Mauritius Institute of Directors, and a trustee of the London School of Economics Trust Fund, a trust set up by Act of Parliament.

Jean Gael Basset

Jean Gael Basset read law at the University of Leicester where he obtained in 2002 his LLB (Hons) and in 2003, a Masters in Management Sciences (MSc) with an emphasis on Corporate Governance. After his studies, he moved to Nicosia, Cyprus where he worked as a Business Consultant, advising companies on organizational structures, designing business plans, marketing plans, analysing financial performance and planning organizational change. He also worked as internal law consultant in a software company.

Jean Gael Basset did his Bar Vocational Course at the Nottingham Law School, UK. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006 at Lincoln�s Inn. He was sworn in as a barrister in Mauritius in February 2008.

Jean Gael Basset handles civil and criminal litigation and consultancy work. Recent transaction work handled by him include advising on Mauritian law aspects of a transaction relating to the laying of an undersea fibre optic cable in Southern Africa, advising on regulatory issues relating to anti money laundering, acting as counsel in litigations involving cross-border transactions and money laundering.

Heetesh Dhanjee

Heetesh Dhanjee read law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK where he obtained an LLB (Hons) in 2007.

Thereafter, he did the Bar vocational Course at the University of the West of England, UK and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2008 at Lincoln's Inn. He was sworn in as a barrister in Mauritius in January 2010.

Heetesh Dhanjee has a keen interest in intellectual property, company law and insolvency matters. He has advised on various public procurement issues and has appeared before the procurement policy office. He has also advised various local companies on employment issues. He has advised on shareholder disputes and has drafted ship mortgages, pledges and other security documents.