Africa group

Africa is an exciting but sometimes complex place to do business. Our vast experience throughout the continent means that we have already navigated through a multitude of different business challenges in Africa and can therefore simplify things for you without having to reinvent the wheel each time. At the same time we are constantly exploring innovative ideas and different approaches to help our clients to achieve their best results in Africa.

Depth of experience

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has an unrivalled understanding of the African market derived from a deep track record acting on matters in Africa for over 40 years across all practice groups and industry sectors. Our offering in Africa is serviced by more than 180 partners from across our global network of offices, including from our 50-lawyer Johannesburg office. We have Africa desks in each of our international hubs, including Asia, comprising lawyers who have experience in Africa and who work regularly with Africa lawyers from elsewhere across our network. This means that you can access our global pool of Africa know-how from your own time zones, wherever you are located. We have worked on matters in all 54 countries of Africa (covering French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic-speaking jurisdictions). Whether you consider the continent is fast-changing or not changing fast enough, our ability to harness our deep pool of experience on the continent means that we can guide you through the unique challenges and opportunities of working in Africa to provide tailored realistic solutions.

Global vision, Africa insight

Our market-leading lawyers have deep experience when serving our clients in Africa and can drill down into specific local in-country issues, which is often where a deal or project can become unstuck. Our Africa practice group includes a core team of Africa advisors who dedicate all or a large portion of their time to work in Africa. These lawyers have built significant experience in specific regions and countries and offer a comprehensive understanding of the laws of the OHADA zone and other regional initiatives (CEMAC-ECCAS, CEDEAO-ECOWAS, UEMOA-WAEMU etc). Building strong relationships of trust and confidence is key to the success of our clients' activities in any jurisdiction globally, particularly in Africa, and face to face meetings are common. Our teams spend a considerable amount of time on the ground in Africa engaging with local industry players, government and local counsel, which has enabled us to build and maintain good working relationships. We are sensitive to local cultural differences and place a strong emphasis on commercial diplomacy when helping our clients to successfully navigate through the issues and realities of doing business on the continent.

Mitigating your risks and resolving your challenges in Africa

We are able to combine our deep Africa know-how and experience with our leading global dispute resolution and crisis management practice. Our ability to foresee and to help you to protect against potential areas of risk and dispute in Africa before they arise, and to deal with them efficiently when things go wrong, is a real differentiator for us and is one of the areas where we believe that we can provide a service in Africa that is over and above that of our competitors.

Don't just take our word for it

We are ranked in eleven Africa-wide categories by Chambers Global 2024, including Band 1 rankings for Africa-wide Projects & Energy, Africa-wide Mining & Minerals and Africa-wide Oil & Gas, and have 25 individual lawyer entries in the Africa-wide and South Africa rankings.

The Fair Deal Sierra Leone Pro Bono Initiative

Since 2010, we have partnered with the Government of Sierra Leone on our Fair Deal Sierra Leone ("FDSL") pro bono initiative. Through FDSL, we leverage our international and cross-practice experience to deliver free legal advice to the Government, supporting the West African nation on its continuing efforts to harness its resources for sustainable growth and development.

We value the Government of Sierra Leone as a key global client, offering a dedicated relationship team and access to our full range of services.

Through FDSL, our lawyers have advised on landmark transactions across various sectors, ensuring Sierra Leone’s interests are well represented in negotiations with international investors. To assist the Government in its efforts to improve the investment landscape in Sierra Leone, we produced a detailed online guide to investing in Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank, Prudential and the UK and Sierra Leonean Governments. The guide, most recently updated in 2019, provided key insights into the commercial, social and investment implications of ongoing events in the country, such as the Ebola crisis.

As part of our long-standing support, we host investor conferences including, most recently, the 2025 Sierra Leone Investment Forum at our offices in London. The event showcases a pipeline of projects and brings together government officials, DFIs, and private sector leaders to discuss the evolving financial ecosystem.

Notably, our work goes beyond investments as we have supported the Government with rule of law and capacity building initiatives through providing guidance on important policy and legislative reforms such as our work on facilitating the country's accession to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in 2020 and modernising its arbitration act.

In the past, our support through FDSL included secondments from HSF Kramer to the Government, and vice versa, and in more recent years has involved: 

• legal training on several topics to law officers of the Attorney General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, Supreme Court judges and other members of Sierra Leone's judiciary;
• events both in Sierra Leone and elsewhere, hosted in collaboration with partners such as the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator, Invest Salone and the UK Sierra Leone Pro Bono Network;
• advice on international best practices and regulatory frameworks in several ESG areas critical to sustainable development, including carbon credits, carbon markets, environmental management and responsible mining. 

For more information, please contact [email protected].