Africa

A&O Shearman has one of the world’s leading Africa practices.

Single tree near in National Park of Serengeti Tanzania

Our team has been advising clients on landmark deals and cases across the continent for more than 30 years.

We act for domestic and multinational corporates, sponsors, lenders, investment and development banks, funds, governments and state-owned enterprises.  

Our expertise covers industries including financial services, energy, transport, infrastructure, natural resources, telecoms and technology, and our lawyers have extensive experience in everything from project development and finance to M&A, capital markets, and disputes.

What sets us apart in the region

Decades of on-the-ground experience 

We provide solutions tailored to our clients’ objectives that anticipate potential legal challenges, informed by decades of on-the-ground experience. 

Our clients benefit from access to more than 150 dedicated lawyers across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, as well as lawyers on the ground in Johannesburg and Casablanca.

Multilingual team with extensive common and civil law expertise

Our team is multilingual and able to advise and negotiate in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Cantonese/Mandarin. Our lawyers understand the legal, political, socio-economic and commercial environments across the continent, and have extensive common and civil law expertise.

Long-standing relationships with leading national law firms

We have longstanding relationships with leading national law firms in countries where we don’t have an office, established through direct transactional experience, secondments, training programs, and know-how initiatives.  

We work seamlessly with our partner firms to provide our clients with high-quality local legal advice as part of an integrated pan-African service.

Explore our capabilities

We advise our clients across Africa from our global network of offices, including in Casablanca and Johannesburg.

Meet our leads

View the expertise of our regional and country partner leads across  Africa.

Find an advisor

We have nearly 4,000 lawyers and consultants globally with outstanding expertise and industry knowledge. Use the filters to find the right one for you.

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