Terms of Use

These terms of use govern access to and use of thefirstcounsel.com. They are written to be read. If you take one thing from them, take this: the Site is a library, not a lawyer. Its content is information, offered without charge and without warranty, and nothing on it — and nothing you send through it — makes the firm your counsel. The clauses below say the same thing with the precision the subject requires.

1. Acceptance and scope

1.1 These terms of use ("these Terms") govern your access to and use of the website at thefirstcounsel.com, including every page, publication, and language edition of it (the "Site"). The Site is published by The First Counsel, Advocates & Corporate Advisors, a law firm whose principal office is at 8th Floor, Askari Corporate Towers, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan (the "firm", and "we", "us", and "our" accordingly). [Legal constitution of the firm — sole proprietorship or partnership, and registration particulars, if any — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.]

1.2 By accessing or using the Site you agree to these Terms. Your agreement takes effect the first time you use the Site and continues each time you return to it. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Site. No signature is required; use is acceptance.

1.3 The Disclaimer published at thefirstcounsel.com/disclaimer (the "Disclaimer") and the Privacy Policy published at thefirstcounsel.com/privacy (the "Privacy Policy") form part of these Terms and are incorporated into them by reference. If these Terms and the Disclaimer differ on the status of the Site's content or on the existence of a lawyer–client relationship, the Disclaimer prevails. If these Terms and the Privacy Policy differ on the handling of personal information, the Privacy Policy prevails. In all other respects these Terms prevail.

1.4 You confirm that you are at least eighteen years of age or have otherwise attained majority under the law that applies to you, or that you use the Site under the supervision of a parent, guardian, or teacher. If you use the Site on behalf of a company, firm, or other organization, you confirm that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and "you" includes that organization.

1.5 These Terms govern the Site only. They do not govern, vary, or form part of any engagement of the firm to act as counsel. An engagement is governed exclusively by its own written terms, as clause 3.4 and clause 9.4 explain. Where these Terms and a written engagement letter conflict in respect of a client of the firm, the engagement letter prevails for that client.

1.6 The Site is directed at readers concerned with the law of Pakistan. It is accessible from other jurisdictions, but the firm does not, by publishing it, offer legal services in any jurisdiction in which it is not qualified to practice. Clause 19.5 addresses access from outside Pakistan.

2. Definitions

2.1 In these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise:

• "the Canons" means the Pakistan Bar Council Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette, as amended from time to time.
• "Content" means everything published on the Site: the Publications, all other text, standfirsts, headings, summaries, data, tables, the glossary and its entries, the design, layout, typography, graphics, and imagery of the Site, the underlying code, and the selection and arrangement of all of these as a compilation.
• "the Disclaimer" means the disclaimer published at thefirstcounsel.com/disclaimer, incorporated into these Terms by clause 1.3.
• "engagement" means a lawyer–client relationship with the firm, formed only in the manner described in clause 9.4.
• "the firm", "we", "us", and "our" mean The First Counsel, Advocates & Corporate Advisors, of 8th Floor, Askari Corporate Towers, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, and, where the context permits, its partners, consultants, and employees.
• "the Marks" means the name "The First Counsel", the FC monogram, and the associated get-up of the Site, as described in clause 6.2.
• "the Privacy Policy" means the privacy policy published at thefirstcounsel.com/privacy, incorporated into these Terms by clause 1.3.
• "Publications" means the informational material published on the Site, including insights (briefings, client alerts, perspectives, and digests), the legislation tracker, decision notes, guides, the regulatory circulars digest, the glossary of Pakistani legal terms, and the court profiles.
• "the Site" has the meaning given in clause 1.1, and includes the forthcoming Urdu edition described in clause 7.7 once published.
• "these Terms" means this document together with the Disclaimer and the Privacy Policy.
• "the working library" means the resources section of the Site: the legislation tracker, decision notes, guides, circulars digest, glossary, and court profiles, taken together.
• "you" and "your" mean any person who accesses or uses the Site, and include any organization on whose behalf that person acts (clause 1.4).

2.2 In these Terms: headings are for convenience and do not affect interpretation; the singular includes the plural and the reverse; "including" and "for example" do not limit the words before them; a reference to a clause is a reference to a clause of these Terms; and a reference to a statute or to rules is a reference to that statute or those rules as amended, re-enacted, or replaced from time to time.

3. The nature of this website

3.1 The Site is an informational website. It describes the firm, its practices, and its people, and it publishes the Publications for the general information of clients, other lawyers, students, and the public. It is a static publication: it has no user accounts, no login, no subscription, and it takes no payments.

3.2 The Publications — the insights, the legislation tracker, the decision notes, the guides, the glossary, the circulars digest, and the court profiles — are information, not advice. They state the law in general terms, as of the date each item carries, for readers whose particular circumstances the firm does not know. A statement that is accurate in general may be wrong, or dangerously incomplete, when applied to a specific set of facts.

3.3 Nothing on the Site is legal advice, and nothing on it may be relied upon as legal advice. The Disclaimer states this in full and forms part of these Terms (clause 1.3). Before acting on any legal position stated on the Site, obtain advice from a qualified lawyer on your own facts, and verify the position against the law in force at that time. Clause 7 explains the as-of dating of the Site's content; clause 12 states the exclusions of warranty that follow.

3.4 Using the Site does not make you a client of the firm. Reading the Publications, writing to the firm through the Site, receiving a reply, or downloading or printing any Content does not create a lawyer–client relationship, a retainer, or any duty of care owed to you as a client. A lawyer–client relationship with the firm is formed only as described in clause 9.4. Until it is formed, the firm owes you none of the duties it owes its clients.

3.5 The firm may publish, amend, or remove any Content at any time. The Site is a working publication of a practicing law firm, not a permanent archive, and clause 16 addresses its suspension and withdrawal.

4. Permitted use

4.1 Subject to these Terms, you may use the Site for personal, professional, and educational purposes. That includes reading the Publications, consulting the working library in the course of your own work (including legal work for your own clients, at your own responsibility), and using the Site's material for study and teaching.

4.2 You may, for the purposes in clause 4.1: view the Site in a browser; print or save single copies of individual pages for your own reference; and share links to any page of the Site, including deep links to individual Publications.

4.3 You may quote from the Publications, in reasonable extracts, provided that each quotation attributes the material to the firm and identifies the Site as its source. A sufficient attribution names the firm, the title of the Publication, its date, and thefirstcounsel.com. Quotation must be fair: it must not reproduce the whole or the substantial part of a Publication, and it must not present an extract in a way that misstates the position the Publication takes.

4.4 You may link to the Site provided that the link is direct, does not frame or embed the Site within another website (clause 5.1(d)), does not suggest any affiliation with, or endorsement or approval by, the firm that does not exist, and is not placed on a website whose content is unlawful or such that association with it would be objectionable to a reasonable law firm. The firm may require the removal of any link at any time, and you must comply promptly with such a requirement.

4.5 Teachers, examiners, and trainers may reproduce individual Publications for classroom or training use, with the attribution described in clause 4.3, provided the material is supplied to participants without charge beyond the cost of reproduction.

4.6 Every use permitted by this clause 4 is a use under the limited license granted by clause 6.3, and no more. Any use of the Content not permitted by this clause 4 or by clause 6 requires the firm's prior written permission, which may be sought as described in clause 6.4.

5. Prohibited use

5.1 You must not, and must not attempt to, and must not assist or permit any other person to:

• (a) scrape, crawl, spider, or otherwise extract Content from the Site systematically or at scale, or use any automated means to download, copy, or index the Site in bulk, except for the indexing of the Site by public search engines in the ordinary operation of search;
• (b) harvest, by automated means or otherwise, the names, email addresses, telephone numbers, or other contact details of the firm's lawyers or staff, or use any such details obtained from the Site to send unsolicited commercial communications, to compile marketing or directory lists, or for any purpose other than genuine individual correspondence;
• (c) misrepresent the source or status of any Content — including by presenting Content as your own work, by altering Content and continuing to attribute it to the firm, by removing or obscuring attribution, as-of dates, draft or for-review flags, or proprietary notices (clause 7.2), or by holding yourself out as connected with, instructed by, or endorsed by the firm when you are not;
• (d) frame, mirror, or embed the Site or any part of it within another website, application, or service, or republish the Site or any substantial part of the Content, commercially or otherwise, without the firm's prior written permission;
• (e) reproduce the Content, systematically or in substantial part, in any database, dataset, or corpus, including a corpus assembled for the training, fine-tuning, or grounding of a machine-learning or artificial-intelligence system, without the firm's prior written permission;
• (f) interfere with the operation or security of the Site — including by probing, scanning, or testing its vulnerability without the firm's written consent, by imposing an unreasonable load on its infrastructure, by circumventing any measure the firm uses to restrict access, or by introducing any virus or other harmful code;
• (g) use the Site or any Content for any unlawful purpose, in breach of any applicable law or regulation, or in a way that infringes the rights of any person; or
• (h) use the Marks except as clause 6.2 permits.

5.2 The firm may investigate suspected breaches of this clause 5, may restrict or block access to the Site by any person, address, or network without notice, and may report unlawful conduct to the relevant authorities. These steps are in addition to, and do not limit, any other remedy available to the firm. Clause 14 (indemnity) applies to any breach of this clause 5.

6. Intellectual property

6.1 Ownership

6.1.1 The Content is protected by copyright and other intellectual-property rights. Unless a page states otherwise, all rights in the Content belong to the firm or to its licensors. This includes the text of the Publications, the standfirsts and summaries, the glossary, the design and code of the Site, and the selection and arrangement of the whole as a compilation.

6.1.2 Statutes, rules, regulations, gazette notifications, and judgments of the courts are public records. The firm claims no ownership of those underlying instruments. What the firm does claim is its own work upon them: the selection, arrangement, summarization, annotation, and commentary that the working library contains.

6.2 The name and the monogram

6.2.1 The name "The First Counsel", the FC monogram, and the associated get-up of the Site are marks of the firm and are claimed as such, whether or not registered. [Trademark registration status and particulars — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.]

6.2.2 You must not use the Marks — in any name, domain name, social-media handle, advertisement, or other material — without the firm's prior written consent, except that you may refer to the firm by name for the purpose of accurate, non-misleading identification, including in the attribution described in clause 4.3.

6.3 The limited license

6.3.1 The firm grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Content for the purposes, and in the ways, described in clause 4. This license carries no right to sublicense.

6.3.2 The license in clause 6.3.1 is the whole of the permission you have. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. The firm may revoke the license, generally or as to any person, at any time; on revocation you must stop the use concerned, though copies lawfully printed or saved for personal reference before revocation may be retained.

6.4 Permissions, objections, and takedown

6.4.1 Requests for permission beyond clause 4 — republication, translation, inclusion in course materials for sale, or any other use — should be sent to [email protected] with the subject line "Permissions", identifying the material, the proposed use, and the audience.

6.4.2 If you believe that any Content infringes your rights, or reproduces your material without permission, write to [email protected] with the subject line "Legal Notice", identifying the material, the page on which it appears, your interest in it, and the outcome you seek. The firm will review every such notice and, where the objection is well founded, will correct, attribute, or remove the material.

7. Content standards and accuracy

7.1 Every substantive legal statement on the Site speaks as of a date. Publications carry the date on which they were written or last updated; entries in the working library carry the date of their last revision. A statement speaks as of its date and no later. The law of Pakistan changes — by statute, ordinance, rule, notification, and judgment — and a statement accurate on its as-of date may have ceased to be accurate the day after.

7.2 Some Content is flagged as a draft or as awaiting review. Flagged material has not completed the firm's internal review and may contain errors of law, of citation, or of fact. It is published, where it is published at all, for transparency about work in progress. Do not rely on flagged material for any purpose. Removing or obscuring such a flag is prohibited by clause 5.1(c).

7.3 The working library is maintained on a periodic verification cycle, under which entries are reviewed against current law and revised or archived. [Cadence and scope of the verification cycle — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.] Between reviews, an entry may fall behind the law it describes. The as-of date on each entry, not the date of your visit, is the date as of which it speaks.

7.4 Citations that have not yet been verified against the reports are bracketed and marked as pending verification. A bracketed citation is a placeholder, not a reference; do not cite it.

7.5 The firm does not warrant that any Content is current, complete, or free of error, and clause 12 excludes such warranties to the fullest extent the law permits. The obligation to verify a legal position against current law before acting on it rests with you and with your own counsel.

7.6 Corrections are invited. If you find an error of law, citation, or fact in any Content, write to [email protected] with the subject line "Correction", identifying the page and the error. The firm reviews correction notices and amends the Content where the point is made out.

7.7 An Urdu edition of the Site is forthcoming. Until it is published, the English text is the only text. Once published, the Urdu edition will be provided for accessibility and convenience; if the two editions differ, the English text prevails. [Approach to be revisited on publication of the Urdu edition — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.]

8. Court profiles and third-party references

8.1 The Site includes profiles of Pakistani courts, benches, and judicial officers. These profiles are compiled from the public record — gazette notifications, the courts' own published materials, cause lists, and reported judgments — and are published as a working reference for the profession and the public.

8.2 The court profiles are descriptive only. Nothing in them, and nothing elsewhere on the Site, implies any affiliation between the firm and any court, judge, tribunal, or regulator, or any endorsement of the firm by any of them, or of any of them by the firm. The firm appears before the courts as counsel; it speaks for none of them.

8.3 Bench compositions, rosters, and administrative arrangements change frequently and without notice to the firm. Verify the current position with the registry of the court concerned before relying on it. Clause 7.1 (as-of dates) applies to the court profiles as it applies to all Content.

8.4 Corrections to the court profiles are particularly invited. A judge, court officer, or member of the profession who finds an error in a profile may write to [email protected] with the subject line "Correction"; such notices are handled with priority.

8.5 References on the Site to statutes, rules, regulators, and other public bodies are likewise descriptive. Where the Site summarizes an official text, the official text prevails; clause 10.3 states the same rule for linked sources.

8.6 Nothing on the Site is intended as comment on any matter that is pending before a court. The Publications discuss decided cases and enacted law; they are written with regard for the sub judice principle and for the Canons.

9. Communications with the firm

9.1 The Site's contact form does not transmit or store anything on the Site's own infrastructure. It composes an email in your own mail application, addressed to [email protected], which you then send — or not — through your own email provider. What happens to that email once sent is described in the Privacy Policy (clause 11).

9.2 Nothing you send to the firm through or in connection with the Site is confidential, and nothing in it is protected by privilege, unless and until the firm has confirmed an engagement in writing. Until then, do not send the firm confidential information: case details, documents, the names of opposing parties, or anything you would not wish an unrelated person to read. Information sent before an engagement is confirmed cannot be treated as a client confidence, and sending it may harm your position.

9.3 The firm accepts instructions only after a conflicts check. Sending the firm information does not oblige the firm to respond, does not create any obligation of engagement, and does not prevent the firm from acting, now or later, for another party in the same or a related matter — including a party adverse to you.

9.4 A lawyer–client relationship with the firm is formed only by an express engagement, confirmed by the firm in writing after a conflicts check — ordinarily by an engagement letter. No statement on the Site, no email exchange, no telephone call, and no meeting creates an engagement unless and until that written confirmation is given.

9.5 Do not use the Site, the contact form, or email for urgent matters. If you or your organization face an arrest, a raid, a freezing or attachment order, a limitation deadline, or any other matter in which hours count, telephone the firm directly. Email sent to the firm is not monitored continuously, an out-of-hours message may not be read until the next working day, and limitation periods and procedural deadlines run regardless of when a message is read. The firm accepts no responsibility for consequences of relying on the Site or on unacknowledged correspondence in an urgent matter.

10. Third-party links and resources

10.1 The Site links to external sources — courts, regulators, gazettes, legislation databases, and other materials — for your convenience. The firm does not control those sources, does not endorse them, and is not responsible for their content, their availability, or their handling of your information.

10.2 Your use of an external site is governed by that site's own terms and privacy policy, not by these Terms. Read them.

10.3 Where the Site summarizes, extracts, or links to an official text — a statute, a rule, a notification, a judgment — the official text as published by the competent authority prevails over the Site's account of it. The gazette, not the tracker, is the law.

10.4 The firm may add, change, or remove links at any time. If a link on the Site is broken, or leads to material that is unlawful or objectionable, the firm asks to be told at [email protected].

11. Privacy

11.1 The Privacy Policy at thefirstcounsel.com/privacy explains what information the firm collects in connection with the Site, how it is used, and the choices you have. It forms part of these Terms (clause 1.3), and on any question concerning personal information it prevails over the rest of these Terms.

11.2 The Site itself is a static publication. It operates no user accounts and processes no payments, and its contact form works as clause 9.1 describes: it composes an email in your own mail application rather than collecting data on the Site. Any measurement or analytics the Site uses is described in the Privacy Policy.

11.3 Emails you send to the firm are received and handled as the Privacy Policy describes, subject always to clause 9.2: before an engagement is confirmed, what you send is neither privileged nor a client confidence.

12. Disclaimers of warranties

12.1 The Site and all Content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind. Access is free of charge, and the Site is offered on that footing.

12.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the firm excludes every warranty, representation, condition, and term that might otherwise apply to the Site or the Content, whether express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, and any warranty that the Content is suitable for your situation. Clause 3 and the Disclaimer state, and this clause repeats, that the Content is information and not advice.

12.3 The firm does not warrant that the Site will be available at any particular time or at all, that access will be uninterrupted or secure, or that defects will be corrected. The Site may be suspended or withdrawn as clause 16 provides, and may be unavailable during maintenance or for reasons outside the firm's control.

12.4 The firm does not warrant that the Site or anything obtained from it is free of viruses or other harmful components. You are responsible for your own protective measures, and anything downloaded or printed from the Site is obtained at your own risk.

12.5 Content may contain typographical, transcription, or formatting errors, and summaries may compress what an official text states in full. Clauses 7.5, 8.5, and 10.3 apply.

12.6 Nothing in this clause 12 limits the carve-outs in clause 13.3 or excludes anything that the law does not permit to be excluded.

13. Limitation of liability

13.1 This clause reflects the basis on which the Site is offered: a free informational publication, provided without charge to readers the firm does not know and whose reliance on it the firm cannot supervise. The exclusions and the cap below are part of the price of free access — and are the reason the firm can maintain the Site at all.

13.2 To the maximum extent permitted by the law of Pakistan, the firm — including its partners, consultants, and employees — has no liability to you, in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with the Site or the Content, including loss caused by your use of, inability to use, or reliance on the Site or any Content. This exclusion covers direct loss as well as indirect and consequential loss, and includes loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, anticipated savings, goodwill, and data, whether or not such loss was foreseeable and whether or not the firm was advised of its possibility.

13.3 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of Pakistan, including liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for willful misconduct. These Terms are to be read subject to this clause 13.3 in every case.

13.4 If, notwithstanding clause 13.2, the firm is found liable to you in connection with the Site or the Content, the firm's total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising in any period of twelve months shall not exceed PKR 100,000 [cap amount — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM]. This cap reflects that the Site is provided without charge and that you pay nothing for access to it. Clause 13.3 prevails over this clause 13.4.

13.5 This clause 13 governs the Site only. It does not exclude, limit, or vary any duty the firm owes to a client under a confirmed engagement, under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, or under the Canons. The duties of the firm to its clients are governed by the engagement and by professional law, not by these Terms.

13.6 Each exclusion and limitation in clauses 12 and 13 is separate and severable (clause 18.1) and survives any termination of your use of the Site.

14. Indemnity

14.1 You will indemnify and hold harmless the firm, its partners, consultants, and employees against all claims, demands, proceedings, losses, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your breach of these Terms, including of clauses 4, 5, and 6; (b) your misuse of the Site or the Content; (c) any material you send to the firm through or in connection with the Site; or (d) your violation of any law or of the rights of any third party in connection with your use of the Site.

14.2 The firm may, at its option, assume the conduct of the defense of any matter to which the indemnity in clause 14.1 applies. You will cooperate with that defense and will not settle any such matter without the firm's prior written consent.

14.3 This clause 14 survives any termination of your use of the Site and any withdrawal of the Site under clause 16.

15. Attorney advertising and professional rules

15.1 The firm practices under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973 and the Pakistan Bar Council Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette. Its lawyers are enrolled as advocates under that Act. [Enrollment particulars of the firm's advocates — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.]

15.2 The Site is published for general information, not as solicitation. Nothing on it is intended to solicit professional employment contrary to the Canons, to advertise in a manner the Canons do not permit, or to compare the firm with any other practitioner. The Site describes what the firm does; it does not press anyone to instruct it.

15.3 To the extent that the Site, or any part of it, constitutes lawyer advertising under the professional-conduct rules of any jurisdiction from which it is accessed, it is identified as such, and this clause is that identification.

15.4 Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every matter turns on its own facts, its own tribunal, and its own record. Representative matters described on the Site are anonymized and, where the Site so indicates, illustrative of practice areas pending publication of the firm's matter record. The Disclaimer addresses this further.

15.5 Descriptions of practice areas on the Site describe work the firm undertakes. They are not claims of specialization beyond what the applicable professional rules permit, and no such claim should be read into them.

15.6 Concerns about the professional conduct of the firm or its lawyers may be raised with the firm at [email protected], and lie in any event to the relevant Bar Council under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973.

16. Suspension and withdrawal of the site

16.1 The firm may amend, suspend, or withdraw the Site, or any part of it, at any time and without notice. The firm publishes the Site voluntarily and assumes no obligation to continue doing so.

16.2 The firm is under no obligation to keep any particular Publication or entry available. Content may be revised, archived, or removed at any time — because the law has changed, because the verification cycle (clause 7.3) requires it, or for any other reason. Do not treat the Site as a permanent repository; if a Publication matters to your work, keep your own copy under clause 4.2.

16.3 Access to the Site may be restricted, generally or for particular users, where maintenance, security, a legal requirement, or a breach of these Terms (clause 5.2) makes restriction appropriate.

16.4 The firm has no liability for any suspension, withdrawal, restriction, or unavailability of the Site or of any Content. Clauses 12.3 and 13 apply.

17. Variation of these terms

17.1 The firm may revise these Terms at any time. Revised Terms take effect when they are published on the Site, and the date they carry is the date of the current version.

17.2 Your use of the Site after revised Terms are published is your acceptance of them. If you do not accept a revision, your remedy is to stop using the Site.

17.3 Check these Terms each time you use the Site. The firm may draw attention to a material revision — for example, by a notice on the Site — but is not obliged to give individual notice, and the absence of a notice does not delay the effect of a revision under clause 17.1.

17.4 No person has authority to vary these Terms orally on the firm's behalf. A variation binds the firm only if published under clause 17.1 or agreed by the firm in writing.

18. Severability, waiver, entire terms

18.1 If any provision of these Terms is held by a competent court to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision applies with the minimum modification necessary to make it valid and enforceable; if it cannot be so modified, it is severed. The remainder of these Terms continues in full force. This clause applies, in particular, to each separate exclusion and limitation in clauses 12 and 13.

18.2 No failure or delay by the firm in exercising any right under these Terms is a waiver of that right, and no single or partial exercise of a right prevents its further exercise. A waiver binds the firm only if given in writing, and a waiver on one occasion is not a waiver on any other.

18.3 These Terms — together with the Disclaimer and the Privacy Policy, which they incorporate — are the entire agreement between you and the firm concerning use of the Site, and supersede all earlier understandings on that subject. They do not supersede, vary, or affect any engagement letter or other written agreement between the firm and a client, which prevails as clause 1.5 provides.

18.4 You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms. The firm may assign these Terms to any successor to its practice.

18.5 Clauses 13 and 14 are intended to benefit the firm's partners, consultants, and employees as well as the firm. Subject to that, these Terms confer no rights on any person other than you and the firm.

19. Governing law and jurisdiction

19.1 These Terms, the Site, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or with your use of the Site (including non-contractual disputes and claims) are governed by the laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

19.2 The courts of competent jurisdiction at Lahore have exclusive jurisdiction over every such dispute or claim, and you irrevocably submit to that jurisdiction and waive any objection to it on grounds of venue or inconvenient forum.

19.3 Notwithstanding clause 19.2, the firm may seek injunctive or other urgent relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property (clause 6) or to restrain a breach of clause 5.

19.4 Nothing in this clause 19 affects any right the firm has to enforce a judgment obtained at Lahore in any other jurisdiction.

19.5 If you access the Site from outside Pakistan, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with the laws that apply to you locally. The firm makes no representation that the Content is appropriate or lawful for use in any place outside Pakistan.

20. Contact

20.1 Questions about these Terms, and every notice they contemplate, should be addressed to:

The First Counsel, Advocates & Corporate Advisors 8th Floor, Askari Corporate Towers Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan [email protected]

20.2 Use the subject lines these Terms specify so that your message reaches the right desk: "Permissions" for reuse requests (clause 6.4.1), "Legal Notice" for rights objections and takedown (clause 6.4.2), "Correction" for errors in Content, including the court profiles (clauses 7.6 and 8.4), and "Privacy" for matters under the Privacy Policy.

20.3 A notice to the firm is effective when actually received at the email or postal address above during business hours at Lahore, and otherwise on the next working day. For anything urgent, clause 9.5 applies: telephone the firm; do not rely on the Site or on email.

These Terms were last revised on the date shown at the head of this page. [Version history location, if maintained — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM.]