About

Throughout her legal career, one of Brenda Akinyi Aluoch’s driving motivations has been playing a role in the region’s development.

‘I was very clear in my mind I wanted to work in Africa – that was my passion’.

With extensive financial services experience, Brenda Akinyi Aluoch has had varied achievements. Early in her career, working at Kenya’s capital markets regulator, Akinyi Aluoch assisted in drafting ground-breaking regulations still used in Kenya today.

She spearheaded the nation’s first unit trust registrations at African Alliance. She has also covered a broad geography across Africa, including a period in Tunisia, working for the African Development Bank, and has won multiple internal awards for her work.

‘I don’t have one biggest achievement – it’s been various milestones’, Akinyi Aluoch says. ‘For example, receiving an award while working for CfC Stanbic Bank very early in my career was encouraging and helped me set various goals going forward. That was the first commercial bank I’d worked in and I was exposed to different client segments, while working with various business units. The experience was invaluable and laid a foundation for me in all areas of transaction and commercial banking’.

Since returning to Standard Chartered Bank from North Africa, Aluoch’s role has expanded from purely East Africa and now covers the whole of the continent. ‘Right now I’m at an exciting time in my career and enjoying the challenges that come with growing and developing my new Africa-wide role’, she says. ‘We have a remarkable and highly skilled team in Africa, with varying backgrounds and talents. And I work in Africa on challenging and innovative transactions, structuring solutions for local, regional and international clients. Even more exciting is the opportunity my role provides to mentor young lawyers from across the continent within the organisation’.

Kenya’s legal market has seen a considerable boost in recent years, she says, following its heightened international interest. ‘In the last few years I have witnessed a surge of confidence and interest by international law firms, who have recognised the opportunities and potential in Africa and want to be involved in landmark transactions on the continent’, she says. ‘It’s an exciting time to be part of Africa’s growth story and I hope that in some way I am contributing to the continent’s development’.

As one counter-effect of this huge economic resurgence, she feels law firms are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of instructions, and response times can suffer. ‘Some don’t manage expectations’, she says. ‘We now use who we think is best placed to advise on a particular matter, and therefore aim to maximise rather than concentrating on a few firms on our panel’.