USA Africa Dialogue Series - AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET 2011

AFRICAN LEGAL MARKET

 

INTRODUCTION

 

         When I was asked to present a paper on the African legal market, I thought that it would be impossible for me to do so in the time available. The reason is that Africa is a very large and diverse continent with three different legal systems common law based (most of the English Speaking Africa),

 

         Dutch Roman( South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe etc ), Continental ( civil law-comprising French Speaking Africa) and systems that are in between ( Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia)

 

         However, Rexattorneys is a member of Lex Africa which is an African legal network of premier law firms mostly in English speaking African countries, so I thought I could speak from the experiences we have had about Africa in Lex Africa generally and specifically from Tanzanian experience.

 

AFRICAN FIRMS GENERALLY

 

With exception of South Africa African Firms are:

 

         typically small

 

         Less specialized

 

         weak in financial management

 

         weak in marketing

 

         Weak in continuing legal training of their lawyers

 

         weak in mechanization of accounts and management

 

         Weak in incentivizing partners and lawyers on performance base remuneration

 

The economies in Africa are growing and expanding and so is the demand for a variety of commercial legal services some of which the local firms have no experience in. International law firms have contributed in working together with local law firms.

 

International law firms approach to Africa differ:

 

         direct association with a local law firm by country

 

         A non-exclusive working relationship

 

         indirect through established South African law firms which have established associations in Africa.

         An African based intra-African legal network developed through the African Legal network

 

headquartered in Kenya which could rival the international law firms in Africa.

 

         Network route both continental and international (i.e WSG and Lex Africa)

 

 

LEGAL MARKET IN TANZANIA

 

SEE ATTACHMENT

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