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Clifford Chance Africa Academy September session marks third year of initiative

1 October 2015

Clifford Chance Africa Academy September session marks third year of initiative

The Africa Academy, launched by leading international law firm Clifford Chance (CC), holds its 10th session in Lagos marking its third year running. The most recent session, held on the 10th and 11th of September this year, covered a variety of topics under the corporate, and litigation and dispute resolution (L&DR) practices. These included due diligence, SPAs, shareholder's agreements and international arbitration. Ten firms from Nigeria and Ghana participated in the session with a total of more than 50 participants spread across the 2 days.

Clifford Chance Africa Academy (CCAA) provides free high level training to talented associates with relationship firms in Africa. Led by CC partners and associates, the training sessions are both practical and interactive and offer an opportunity for participants to network with practitioners from other African jurisdictions, enhance knowledge sharing and management processes as well as exchange insights on current legal topics and market practice.

Since September 2013, CCAA has held 10 on-the ground sessions covering 7 countries in North, South, East and West Africa. A total of 244 participants from 63 law firms across 20 African countries have now participated in the training covering topics such as banking, project finance, capital markets, corporate and dispute resolution. Clifford Chance has had 22 partners from across a number of sectors, practice groups and offices lead sessions for the Africa Academy since the start of the initiative with great success.

Managing Partner Konyin Ajayi from Nigerian law firm Olaniwun Ajayi LP commented, "The Clifford Chance Africa Academy is a visionary initiative; not in the least because of the platform it provides for practitioners from either side of the Atlantic to connect, share knowledge, and trade experiences. These synergies help our firms work better together; creating value that transcends the Academy. We have been a part of the Academy from its inception; and this year, we played host to more than 50 associates from Clifford Chance relationship firms in Ghana and Nigeria. Our expectation is that the Academy will continue to expand its reach to other countries in this hemisphere, and we are committed to supporting this objective."

Co-Head of Clifford Chance's Africa practice, Edmund Boyo, states, "The September session was a strong success for all who were able to take part. We are very proud of this initiative.  We continue to work towards providing access to legal training for our African colleagues in their home countries. Our African counsel friends are crucial to progressing the regional practice and through the Africa Academy we can uphold our promise to deliver the best advice to our clients globally. "

Clifford Chance has over 30 years experience advising on Africa-related matters. The firm's work has covered every country in the continent and spans a wide range of advice. The Africa team involves some 200 lawyers from around the network who are regularly active on Africa matters, including a dedicated group of partners and associates who help develop and maintain important relationships with the best local law firms region by region, country by country.