‘It is always refreshing to be associated with award-winning transactions’, Beatrice Njeru says. An influential figure in Kenya’s banking industry with wide-reaching specialisms, Njeru is among East Africa’s most technically skilled transactional lawyers, according to sources. Working as part of a global team, Njeru has led some of the region’s largest transactions, and driven forward developments in investment banking’s standardised documentation. As a Loan Market (East Africa) Committee member, she presents regularly at seminars, and is one of the jurisdiction’s most influential industry voices.

Her greatest challenges, Njeru says, relate to lack of clear-drafting in transactions, as well as the rapid pace at which laws can be changed in the jurisdiction. ‘With the growth in African economies, the bulk of certain development activities and related transactions originating from the developing countries – including those in Africa – it is a big step forward to have in-house lawyers based in those jurisdictions who are very familiar with the local laws and clearly understand the market practice’,

Njeru says. ‘I am glad to be an in-house counsel in East Africa driving this agenda forward, and so far quite successfully’.