Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance wins International Law Firm of the Year at African Legal Awards

Clifford Chance has won International Law Firm of the Year award at the 2016 African Legal Awards held on 9 September in Johannesburg. The awards were hosted by Legal Week in conjunction with the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA). This is the second time that Clifford Chance has won this award since its inception in 2013.

Clifford Chance demonstrated its position as a leading law firm in the African market, continuing to lead the way in many areas. The judges acknowledged the firm's capacity to set the benchmark for international deal best practice across Africa.

Anthony Giustini, Regional Managing Partner for Africa, said: "This award recognises the efforts of hundreds of our lawyers across our global network and practices, including the work of six specialized teams with in-depth legal and market knowledge of their respective regions of Africa and key jurisdictions".

The firm's key Africa-related achievements include:

• Contributing to the development of the legal profession in Africa through a 'social responsibility' programme of community-based initiatives, legal education and knowledge exchange. This includes Clifford Chance Africa Academy, an example of knowledge transfer and capacity building for African colleagues
• Hosting our third African Counsel Retreat in March 2016, where 60 lawyers from 50 law firms across 23 countries and 50 client delegates convened to discuss key issues for investors in Africa
• Securing a steady activity of ground-breaking matters over the last 12 months, including:

o    working on over 300 transactions spanning 40 countries across Africa
      in the past year
o    working on over 100 corporate M&A and PE transactions in Africa
      over the last 12 months
o    working on more than 40 lending transactions across over 20 African
      jurisdictions in the last 12 months, worth circa. 3 billion dollars
o    working on over 70 project financings worth over circa. 6 billion dollars in
      more than 30 African countries over the past year
o    working on over 20 disputes across more than 15 African jurisdictions
o    advising on market-first Capital Markets issuances in eight African
      jurisdictions