The last few years have seen important changes in the African business world, as the continent has been integrating steadily in the world’s economy. Both domestic businesses and regional operations of large multinationals have been adopting global industry trends and updating their internal processes to reflect new developments in technology and management science.
In line with these changes, in-house lawyers working in Africa have evolved in their role and now serve as cross-functional business units positioned at the very epicentre of commercial affairs. Expected to provide their input on issues from a legal and ethical perspective, African general counsel today contribute actively to their businesses, whether by managing financial transactions among multiple jurisdictions, responding to legislative and regulatory changes, delivering innovative solutions to complex issues or by devising strategies that enable their business to remain profitable.
In this year’s GC Powerlist: Africa we are pleased to highlight some of the region’s leading corporate counsel. To put together the list, we canvassed opinions from both law firm partners and in-house counsel in Africa and other jurisdictions. We identified lawyers who are not only technically gifted and highly trained, but have also utilised their legal knowledge strategically alongside keen business insight to make a positive impact towards their organisation’s success.
I would like to express my personal thanks to DLA Piper for supporting this publication. A special mention must also go to the in-house lawyers that took time to speak to us throughout the process, as well as to the research team that worked on this GC Powerlist publication.
