Advocates & Solicitors — Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
The law, rightly practised, is an instrument of peace before it is an instrument of contest.
Message us on WhatsAppAt Usman & Partners, we have set out to recover an older understanding of our craft — one in which the advocate is not merely a combatant retained to prevail, but a custodian of right, charged with the restoration of what has been disturbed. We hold that most disputes are not, in the deepest sense, won; they are healed. Our work begins, therefore, not with how a matter may be fought, but with how it may be made whole — and only when wholeness is refused do we turn to the courts.
We are a lean practice by deliberate choice, that the matters entrusted to us may receive the attention, the patience, and the conscience they deserve.
Two dispositions govern this practice, and a client may pass between them as fidelity to justice requires. We begin, always, with the first.
The first and the preferred — the patient labour of mediation, of collaborative settlement, of bringing parties to a peace they themselves can keep. It asks more of the advocate than litigation does: not cleverness alone, but temperance, and the discipline to seek the client's true interest rather than merely the client's victory.
The second — the rigorous, undivided advocacy owed to a client when a right must be vindicated and no reconciliation is to be had. Here we are exacting, prepared, and unsentimental in the service of our client's cause.
The heart of the practice. Through certified mediation and collaborative process, we seek settlements that endure because the parties have authored them — preserving the relationships, the dignity, and the resources that adversarial proceedings ordinarily consume.
Few matters touch a person more nearly than the dissolution of a marriage or the care of a child. We attend to joint petitions, collaborative divorce, custody, and cross-border unions with the gravity such moments demand, mindful always of the children whose welfare outlasts the dispute.
The ordering of one's affairs is among the last responsibilities a person discharges toward those they love. We prepare wills and administer probate, that an inheritance may pass without rancour and according to law.
Where the exercise of public power exceeds its lawful bounds, the citizen is owed a remedy. We bring selective, carefully chosen challenges against administrative decisions, holding authority to the standards the law sets for it.
If you come to us in conflict, we will first ask whether it can be resolved rather than prolonged. If it cannot, we will defend you well. Either way, you will be heard.
We practise civil law only. We do not handle Shariah (Islamic) law or native customary law matters.