Christo Els, Webber Wentzel Senior Partner, said the agreement built on the firm’s strategy to deepen relationships with leading African ​law firms in countries where its clients operated.

“We are committed to supporting our clients, sustainable growth and the widening of opportunities across the continent,” he said.

Tadesse Kiros, Senior Partner in the Tadesse Kiros Law Office, said the relationship had established a major strategic complement to the firm’s existing relationships with international law firms.

“Together we look forward to supporting our clients at this exciting and transformational time in Ethiopia.”

The relationship 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.​​​​​​​

Ethiopia has the second largest population in Africa and holds great potential for foreign investment particularly in the industrial, agriculture, energy, mining, financial services and ICT sectors and also through the recent privatisation programme.

Robert Appelbaum, Webber Wentzel Ethiopia country partner, said the relationship was 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 privatisation programme, 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.”

 Read the full press release here

Webber Wentzel was named the African Law Firm of the Year (large practice) at the African Legal Awards 2019 while Tadesse Kiros Law Office is ranked Tier 1 by Chambers Global 2020 (for General Business Law). Tadesse Kiros is also ranked Band 1 as an individual.

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