/ ABOUT THE FIRM

Setting the Standard for Legal Excellence in Bhutan

Basnet Attorneys & Law (Bhutan) is a full-service law firm in Thimphu, Bhutan, advising clients in Bhutan and abroad. Our Bhutanese lawyers work in litigation, legal consulting and business advisory, with attention to compliance under both Bhutanese and international law.

 

Our attorneys work across Bhutan’s legal framework and regulatory environment, and advise on complex matters. We work with law firms in India, the United States, Germany, Singapore and China, enabling us to handle multi-jurisdictional matters effectively. Our clientele includes multinational corporations, foreign investors, and international businesses from India, China, and Switzerland and 30 plus countries, some businesses operating across 100+ countries.

 

Core Legal & Business Support Areas

━ Our Vision

Our vision is to help shape the legal landscape of Bhutan. As a law firm in Bhutan, we work towards shaping legal precedents, fostering progressive policies, and influencing legislation that aligns with the values of justice, fairness, and sustainability.

━ Our Mission

Our mission is to empower individuals, businesses, and organizations in Bhutan by delivering legal services that resolve their legal problems and support their growth. As a law firm, we are dedicated to upholding the highest ethical standards and promoting social justice, equality, and sustainable development in our community.

━ Our Work

The firm's work is recorded in the press releases it publishes, and the matters below are drawn from them.

In corporate and transactional work we have carried out legal due diligence on the purchase and sale of a hydropower project, on the acquisition of a horticulture business for United States and Finnish investors, and on the sale of one of the largest information technology enabled services companies in Bhutan, including the share transfer and the share purchase agreement. We have incorporated companies across sectors, established foreign direct investments, set up an information technology enabled services project in three dimensional modelling, and advised a major franchisee and several technology companies on corporate compliance, taxation and labour law after formation.

In financial services and digital assets we have advised on the establishment of virtual asset service providers in Bhutan, on the redomiciliation of a global cryptocurrency exchange, on stablecoin regulation for a payment system provider, on the licensing requirements for a Singapore headquartered group introducing fintech services, and on the use of Bitcoin as payment for mining equipment. We have advised a Swiss firm on banking and insurance regulatory requirements in Bhutan, and an offshore fund manager on the rules that govern the solicitation of investors' funds here.

In technology and cross border work we have reviewed the commercial contracts of a global satellite internet provider entering Bhutan, advised on the licensing of artificial intelligence chatbot services, answered whether the police can require user login information from an international social media platform, advised an American media and entertainment group on opening its office in Bhutan, and acted on the termination of a cross border contract between India and Bhutan for a United States company.

In disputes and regulatory work we have represented a client in a dispute over a misrepresented product sale, provided more than ten regulatory analyses to an international financial institution on businesses, government agencies and procurement, and taken part in the Business Executive Forum on Bhutan's draft Insolvency Bill 2025. The firm is a certified filing agent with the Corporate Regulatory Authority and a certified intellectual property agent with the Department of Media, Creative Industry and Intellectual Property.

The full record is on our press releases page.

━ Our Firm in the Gelephu Mindfulness City

Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. is the first law firm incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City, the Special Administrative Region established by Royal Charter in 2024. It keeps an office in Gelephu with a resident team, including a resident director and compliance officer under the Companies Act 2025.

GMC has its own legal system based on the common law, its own courts, and a single financial regulator in the Gelephu Financial Services Office. Work there covers incorporation and corporate structuring under the Companies Act 2025, licence applications to the Gelephu Financial Services Office under the Financial Services Act 2025, virtual asset service providers and digital asset businesses, tax treatment and incentives under the Income Tax Act 2025, employment and work passes, land and construction, and dispute resolution.

Clients whose plans touch both jurisdictions are handled by one team. Basnet Attorneys & Law advises on mainland Bhutan from Thimphu, and Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. advises on GMC from Gelephu. Our GMC practice is set out at Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. and at basnetgmc.com.

━ Working With International Clients and Law Firms

A company or a law firm that needs Bhutanese law advice can instruct a large firm outside the country, which will then instruct local counsel, or it can instruct the Bhutanese firm directly. We work directly with foreign clients and with foreign counsel, without intermediaries or third party agents.

That arrangement changes three things. The advice comes from the lawyers who make the filings, deal with the authorities and appear in the matters themselves, rather than from a summary passed along a chain of offices. The cost is the cost of a Bhutanese practice rather than the cost of an international one carrying a local sub-instruction. And the time it takes to answer a question depends on this office alone.

We are accustomed to the way international teams work, to their reporting formats and their deadlines, and we collaborate with firms in India, the United States, Germany, Singapore and China when a matter crosses borders. If you are advising a client with interests in Bhutan, our terms for referral and local counsel work are set out at International Partnership.

━ Contemporary Legal Questions

A large share of the firm's work sits in areas where Bhutanese law is still being settled. That includes virtual assets, stablecoins and exchanges, artificial intelligence services, data privacy and cross border requests for user data, fintech and payment licensing, hydropower and data centre projects, and the insolvency regime now under reform.

In these matters there is often no decided case and no detailed regulation to point to. The work is to read the statutes that do apply, to establish how the regulator is likely to read them, to say plainly where the position is unsettled, and to set out the options and the exposure in writing so that a board can take a decision on the record.

What we learn is published in our legal insights, which cover foreign direct investment, company law, labour law, cryptocurrency regulation, taxation and the Gelephu Mindfulness City.

━ Our Philosophy

We uphold the highest ethical standards in all our actions and decisions. Honesty, transparency, and reliability are at the heart of our practice. We are committed to building trust with our clients and stakeholders, ensuring that they can rely on us to act with integrity in every legal matter we handle.


Excellence: We are dedicated to delivering excellence in everything we do. Our legal practitioners continuously strive for perfection, seeking innovative and effective solutions to complex legal challenges. By nurturing a culture of continuous learning and professional development, we maintain our position at the forefront of legal expertise.


Client-Centric Approach: Our clients' needs are paramount. We listen attentively, understand their objectives, and tailor our legal strategies to achieve the best possible outcomes for them. Building enduring relationships with our clients is essential to us, and we are committed to their success and satisfaction.