Whilst Webber Wentzel is a South African law firm, we recognise that modern business is not constrained by geographical boundaries. As such, we are able to provide our South African and international clients with legal support in relation to their operations in the rest of Africa. Our work in Africa now represents a significant and growing part of the firm's practice.
It is key to our ability to operate in Africa to be able to work with the best law firms around the continent. We have spent a considerable amount of time and effort cultivating relationships with law firms that we consider to be the best in each jurisdiction across the African continent which means that we are able to select the most appropriate firm in each jurisdiction with whom to work depending on the nature of the transaction and the skill set required. These relationships have been developed to ensure that we understand the strengths and capabilities of our network firms so that we are able to deliver a seamless service to our clients.
Being based in South Africa gives us easy access to our clients and their markets. Our proximity to those markets enables us easily to project manage the largest complex and cross-border transactions and integrate our expertise and skills base with that of local counsel to ensure clients receive a consistently high level of service delivery.
Our “on the ground” experience of doing deals across the continent provides a real understanding of the local and sometimes cultural issues which face investors in such countries. We are very familiar with the concerns which international investors have when investing or doing business in Africa including those relating to lack of transparency, corporate governance, corruption, counterparty risk, effectiveness of the local courts and enforcement of judgements and are used to working with clients to help reduce or eliminate the risks involved.
We enjoy close relationships with regulatory authorities throughout the continent and are regularly called upon to participate in knowledge sharing exercises with these bodies and assist them in developing regulatory regimes. We are also able to help steer clients through the challenges of an investment in a regulated environment.
We are able to offer billing rates at a very competitive level in comparison with our European and US competitors without compromising on quality.
Our international capabilities are further enhanced by the fact that we have a number of English law qualified partners and associates in both the corporate and finance practices. Accordingly we are able to advise on transactions governed by English law.
We have recently recruited Steven De Backer who was previously a senior partner at Mkono & Co. who are one of the leading firms in East Africa. Steven grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is a Belgian qualified lawyer and has many years experience in advising on legal matters in Francophone Africa. Steven is backed up by a team of French speaking and civil law qualified lawyers who are able to assist our clients in relation to their transactions and operations in Francophone Africa.
We therefore believe that we are able to offer significant breadth of experience in advising on multi-jurisdictional transactions in Africa.
