No Competition. Only Communities

Paras heads the M&A and projects team and is one of Kenya’s leading corporate and commercial lawyers.

He explains how quickly the firm adapted to a new way of doing business, and that the transition has had silver linings. He confesses he is finding working from home surprisingly productive while enjoying more opportunity to be with his family and to exercise.

A challenge for Kenya like so much of Africa, he says, is to ensure those outside the formal economy are enabled to make ends meet and that the suffering and desperation of the poor is not ignored. The law firm has risen to the occasion to do what it can to help the communities where it operates but also at national level where lawyers have engaged with governments to see where they can provide support.

Most heartening has been the coming together of rival firms who are working together to chart a way forward for the legal and financial sector – stepping up to support and lobby governments where necessary.

For Paras, there is always cause of optimism and, he says, post Covid-19 there will be new opportunities. Bowmans is expanding its African footprint reflecting a growing confidence in locally-based expertise supported by strong global relationships.

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