‘the african law firm of the future’ initial survey results€¦ · survey: the african law...

‘The African Law Firm of the Future’initial survey results

1Cambridge Strategy Group Limited - 28 June 2018 - camstrategy.com

71%

17%

3%3%3%3%

Which of the following most accurately describes you?

African lawyer in private practice in Africa

In-house legal counsel based in Africa

International lawyer in private practice

International in-house legal counsel, responsible for African operations

Regulator/Bar Association official or similar

Other (please specify)

(African Lawyer in Financial Institution)

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureThe survey had 35 respondents, 71% of which were external legal advisers

22%

13%

14%11%

5%

5%

5%

5%

3%3%3%3%3%

5%

In which country are you based/most professionally active?

Uganda

Algeria

Angola

Botswana

SenegalTunisia

Not in Africa (UAE, Portugal)

Nigeria

Kenya

South Africa

Tanzania

Ghana

Mozambique

Rwanda


Compared to 3 - 5 years ago, African law firms today are generally:

more optimistic

about Africa’s economic and socio-political

prospects

deliveringbetter quality

of legalservices to

clients

moreresponsive toclient needs

moreoptimistic

about theirown futures

morecompetitive

with non-African

internationallaw firms (ILFs)

moretechnologically

advanced

more corporate and “business-like”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Strongly disagree Slightly disagree Neither agree nor disagree Slightly agree Strongly agree

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureCompared to 3 – 5 years ago, the vast majority of respondents are more optimistic / far more optimistic about the future


far

mor

e he

avily

inve

sted

inte

chno

logy

com

mon

ly u

sing

AI a

nd o

ther

adva

nced

dig

ital

too

ls

part

of o

ne o

f the

larg

e gl

obal

ILFs

part

of t

he ‘B

ig 4

’ glo

bal

advi

sory

firm

s

com

peti

tive

ly in

depe

nden

t,si

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ntry

firm

s

regi

onal

mul

ti-o

ffic

e A

fric

anfir

ms

/ co

-bra

nded

alli

ance

s

cons

ider

ably

mor

e pr

ofit

able

than

in 2

018

incr

easi

ngly

sim

ilar

toEu

rope

an /

US

law

firm

s

dist

inct

ly A

fric

an, n

otem

ulat

ing

Euro

pean

/ U

S la

wfir

ms

mul

ti-di

scip

linar

y pr

acti

ces,

whe

re la

wye

rs a

nd o

ther

prof

essi

onal

s co

llabo

rate

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

Strongly disagree Slightly disagree Neither agree nor disagree Slightly agree Strongly agree

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureFirms will likely be far more heavily invested in technology and multi-country African firms, perhaps MDPs*, are expected to be the market leadersIn 2025, the leading African law firms will likely be:

4* multi-disciplinary practicesCambridge Strategy Group Limited - 28 June 2018 - camstrategy.com

• The legal space in Africa is increasingly competitive with the entry of global legal firms looking to share on the legal business arising from the growing African economies and in particular following their multinational companies investing in Africa who are also their clients back home. There is also increasing nationalism with local content regulations aimed at preserving some of the local legal work exclusively to local law firms.

• The legal market is still shallow compared to the European and US market having regard to the level of investments in these African countries. Unless intra African trade improves, international collaboration among African law firms would be a mirage.

• Optimistic about the future.

• I expect there to be increasing alliances and collaborations with other leading law firms both on the continent and beyond.

• The survey Questions should distinguish between countries in Africa. South Africa is far more developed than some of the others in terms of governance, ethics and technology compared to recent democracies. There is huge growth opportunities in SA and rest of Africa. Developed countries' law firms do not recognise material culture and different environments that we operate in.

• The real challenge in Africa is infrastructure and funding, not technology or ability. We can cite many cases of tech, fintech innovation in Africa but what is stopping significant progress are basics like connectivity, affordable access to internet, data, tech incubators, lack of VC funding etc...We have the skill and ingenuity, we need more investment in the "tools" and training required to even the playing fields.

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureComments on the likely characteristics of leading African law firm


Which practice areas have the greatest growth potential for African law firms over the next 3 – 5 years?

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureRespondents were optimistic about growth prospects for all practice areas

6

Arbitr

ation /

ADR

Aviatio

n

Banking a

nd finan

ce

Bankruptc

y and re

stru

cturin

g

Capital m

arkets

Comm

ercial

law

Corpora

te M

&A

Emplo

yment

Green b

onds, so

cial a

nd impact

investing

Inte

llectu

al pro

perty

Inte

rnatio

nal tra

de

Litigatio

n

Private

equity

Project f

inance

Public la

w

Real esta

te Tax

Telecom

s, m

edia and tech

nology

White

colla

r crim

e incl. c

orruptio

n

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Shrink significantly Shrink slightly Remain the same Grow slightly Grow significantly

Cambridge Strategy Group Limited - 28 June 2018 - camstrategy.com

• Growing economies will see growth of the financial sector and real estate development as well as commercial deals and transactions. Growth of digital finance will mean growth of telecom companies and possible listing and contributing to the growth of capital markets. The growing economies will also see growth in capital funds. Arbitration and litigation as well as bankruptcies will be growing as a result of disruptive elements in the market due to the growing use of technology.

• We are seeing exponential growth in some of the areas highlighted.

• Its hard to predict on a continent as diverse as Africa which sectors will see increased growth or not. I do reasonably foresee an increase in M&A activity and infrastructure projects, particularly in non-government backed infrastructure projects. The model for infrastructure is changing with mega projects falling by the way side and smaller platform type plays taking place.

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureComments on which practice areas have the greatest growth potential in the next 3-5 years


Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureRespondents are almost uniformly optimistic about growth prospects across all industry sectors, especially digital technology, infrastructure, renewable energy and telecoms

8

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Agriculture

Banking

Digital technologies (e.g. AI, blockchain,

Internet of Things, etc.)

Infrastructure development

Manufacturing

Mining and minerals

Oil & gas

Professional services, incl. financial and

business

Renewable energy

generation

Telecommunications

Tourism

Transport and logistics

Wholesale and retail


• Natural resources nationalism coupled with laws unfriendly to long term risky investment will probably see a decline in mining, oil and gas extraction. The service sector and technology is poised to grow in the wake of growing digital finance and transportation will grow due to infrastructure development including railways and ports and the geographical location of Tanzania.

• We don't expect any of the above areas to shrink in any way.

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureRespondents are almost uniformly optimistic about growth prospects across all industry sectors


In-house counsel are far more positive about ILFs*, than African law firms

Enabling international

investors to do business in

Africa

De-risking African projects

Transferring skills to

African law firms

Creating and communicating new legal knowledge that

solves persistent challenges

Changing the narrative about

Africa, in international

markets

Helping countries develop better

legislation, as African economies diversify

and grow

Providing premium legal

services of a kind in short supply or

absent in most African law firms

Survey: The African Law Firm of the Future

In house counsel

External legal advisors

Do ILFs have an important role to play in Africa's development? Please rate each of the following in terms of the response that most closely mirrors your own.

10

* International law firms


• The real drive of ILFs is the large cross-border infrastructure and related business. They do not usually go after the small local business and they are not geared towards contributing to the legal development in Africa for the African law firms or even governments. There is of course a small transfer of expertise to the few lawyers engaging with the ILFs on transactions.

• The legal capacity on the continent is often underrated and the contribution of ILFs exaggerated.

• Its a catch 22 for ILFs as I believe it is incumbent on them to share knowledge and up-skill African law firms, however the challenge is that they wouldn't want African law firms to become so efficient that clients can bypass ILFs. We already see this happening in more mature markets like SA where certain very competent SA firms have expanded their reach in Africa.

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureILFs may be worried that helping African law firms up-skill may create competitors

11

Note: The acronym ‘ILF’ is used to characterize a wide range of international law firms, from premium firms focusing entirely on large, complex cross-border work down to international brands competing directly with local firms for local work. Clearly, the competitive drivers are very different. Many African clients and even firms have difficulty differentiating between the extremes, seeing only ‘foreign’ firms and worrying that they will lose work to them.

Rather bizarrely, the local firms that voice the most strident opposition to their bar associations about the entry of ILFs to their markets, are small firms with mid- to lower tier practices with which the ILFs are the least in competition.


In terms of ILFs seeking to enhance the practice of law in Africa, please rate the value that you believe each of the following activities delivers for African law firms and/or clients:

Conferencesin Africancentres

Conferencesin European

centres

Newsletters Seriouspublishedthought

leadership

Secondmentsto theiroffices

Sharing ofknowledge

withpreferred

relationshipfirms

Joint pitchingand businessdevelopment

Developingcultural

intelligencefor the

differentcountries in

Africa

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

No value / harmful Little value Good value Great value

Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureSecondments are viewed as the most valuable contribution that ILFs can make to African law firms, followed by knowledge sharing and joint pitching


League tables identify the following ILFs as leaders in various practice areas Africa-wide. Respondents scored only those with which they are familiar on a scale of 1 (min) to 10 (max) according to the value that they add in supporting the African legal profession and law firms. The chart below represents the average score per firm.

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Survey: The African Law Firm of the FutureSecondments are viewed as the most valuable contribution that ILFs can make to African law firms, followed by knowledge sharing and joint pitching


‘the african law firm of the future’ initial survey results€¦ · survey: the african law...

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