The Johannesburg-based law firm, Webber Wentzel, and leading Ethiopian law firm, Tadesse Kiros Law Office signed a bilateral agreement to formalize a relationship and create a stronger platform to serve the continent.
JOHANNESBURG (Webber Wentzel) – Businesses and investors are increasingly looking to enter Africa and expand operations across the continent. Ethiopia has the second largest population on the African continent and holds great potential for foreign investment particularly in the industrial, agriculture, energy, mining, financial services and ICT sectors and also through the recent privatization program.
Recognizing this and responding to client needs, Webber Wentzel and leading Ethiopian law firm, Tadesse Kiros Law Office recently signed a bilateral agreement. The agreement will deepen and formalize the relationship between these leading firms and create a stronger platform to serve people in Africa. The agreement also puts in place concrete measures to enable consistent and collaborative best practice sharing and thought leadership as well as create opportunities for joint training and secondments.
Christo Els, Webber Wentzel Senior Partner, “We are very excited about entering into this bilateral agreement with Tadesse Kiros Law Office. The agreement builds on our strategy to continue to deepen relationships with the leading African law firms in countries where our clients operate. We are committed to supporting our clients, sustainable growth and the widening of opportunities across the continent.”
Robert Appelbaum, Webber Wentzel Ethiopia country partner: “Our relationship has grown out of live mandates and is a perfect mix given the depth of experience of both firms. A number of our clients are active in Ethiopia and, subsequent to the recent positive and pro-business changes including the privatization program, we are seeing many more of our international and South African clients interested in investing in Ethiopia. We are also increasingly seeing matter complexity growing with advice requiring expertise from multiple African countries. This bilateral agreement between two leading advisers is another means of ensuring exceptional service to our clients. As part of the marking of this milestone, we will be jointly engaging with our clients in the coming months.”
Tadesse Kiros, Senior Partner, Tadesse Kiros Law Office: “We are delighted to be taking this important step in our relationship with Webber Wentzel. Working alongside Webber Wentzel as the leading full- service firm in Africa will form a major strategic complement to our existing relationships with international law firms. Together we look forward to supporting our clients at this exciting and transformational time in Ethiopia.”
About Webber Wentzel
With over 150 years of experience and industry knowledge, Webber Wentzel provides clients with seamless, tailored and commercially minded business solutions within record times. We value excellence and innovation and we work with our clients to help them achieve success in whatever they do. Our passion to help our clients achieve their goals shows in the quality of the delivery of our service. We aim to add value in everything we do and to be the trusted adviser to our clients. We bring international perspective to our clients through our alliance with Linklaters, one of the world’s leading firms.
— Achieved 76 overall individual rankings in Chambers Global 2020. Client quote from Chambers Global 2020: “Highly focused on understanding the client’s business and deadlines.”
— African Law Firm of the Year (large practice) – African Legal Awards 2019
— Alliance of the Year (with Linklaters) – African Legal Awards 2019
— Law Firm of the Year – The South African Professional Service Awards 2019/2020
About Tadesse Kiros Law Office
Established in 1996 by Tadesse Kiros, former Deputy Chief Justice of Ethiopia, we are a leading legal service provider both in terms of organizational capability and coverage. Harnessing the expertise of our lawyers and our several years of public and private sector experience, our office has managed to become the local counsel of choice for many prominent international investors and works as a relationship firm for leading global law firms. We maintain a close relationship with other specialists and professionals as well as reputed accounting and consultancy firms. We make use of other lawyers who are specialists in specific areas of law when we deem necessary in dealing with particular issues.
— Ranked by Chambers Global 2020. Client quote from Chambers Global 2020“I’m really impressed with them. They’re bright, capable technical lawyers.”
— Ranked Tier 1 by Chambers Global 2020 (for General Business Law). Tadesse Kiros is also ranked Band 1 as an individual.
Source: Webber Wentzel