

Africa
In addition to our offices in Johannesburg, South Africa and Casablanca, Morocco, our Africa Group includes over 150 lawyers from across our network of offices in key hubs across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. Allen & Overy was the first magic circle firm to set up in Morocco in 2011 and was also the first global elite law firm to establish a presence in South Africa.
Over the past 25 years, our team, together with selected local counsel, has advised clients on numerous large scale international transactions across the continent, providing an integrated service for clients doing business in the region. We advise international organisations, investors, banks and African corporations on their business activities across the continent - in the past two years we have advised in 30+ jurisdictions in Africa. Drawing on both common and civil law capability our team assists on projects, banking, corporate, litigation and arbitration matters, with particular expertise in the financial, energy, infrastructure, mining, telecoms and technology sectors.
Clients who are working on deals in Africa need an all-round vision and awareness of the African market. We understand issues from various perspectives and can apply this experience to the advice we provide; anticipating potential problems to save time and money. Our clients can tap into our knowledge of African issues acquired through significant local experience, with the result that our lawyers understand the legal, political, socio-economic and commercial environments of the different African countries where our clients do business. In addition, we have developed longstanding relationships with local counsel across Africa through direct transactional experience, secondments, training programmes, and know-how initiatives, which in turn gives clients access to high quality local legal advice as part of a consistent and seamless service.
Countries we cover in Africa:
Key contacts
News and insights

Publications: 07 March 2023
Antitrust in focus - February 2023
This newsletter is a summary of the antitrust developments we think are most interesting to your business. Vivian Cao, partner at Allen & Overy Lang Yue, is our editor this month (learn more about…

Blog Post: 23 November 2022
The role of private sector investment in adaptation
Adaptation is critical for developing countries to protect against current and future impacts of climate change, but so far adaptation has generally been deprioritized in relation to mitigation during…

Publications: 16 November 2022
COP27: Africa’s energy transition will take time
Concluding our series on COP27, Tim Scales, head of A&O’s Africa Group and Co-Head of the Global Projects Practice, calls for a pragmatic approach, recognising that, vital though energy transition is,…

Publications: 15 November 2022
COP27: Reaching for opportunities in an energy crisis in South Africa
Renewable energy and market reforms are helping to take the pressure off South Africa’s broken electricity system. But as Alessandra Pardini and Alexandra Clüver, partners in A&O’s Johannesburg…
Awards & accolades
- Winner of ‘Africa Oil & Gas Deal of the Year’ at the 2021 IJ Global awards
- Winner of ‘Moroccan Law Firm of the Year’ at the 2021 Chambers Africa awards
- Africa Mining Deal of the Year 2021 – Tri-K Gold Mine – IJ Global 2022
- Africa Transport Deal of the Year 2021 – Côte d’Ivoire Port – IJ Global 2022
- Renewables Deal of the Year 2021 – Redstone CSP, South Africa – IJ Global 2022
- Europe and Africa Legal Adviser of the Year 2021 – IJ Global 2022
- #1 Legal Adviser for Sub-Saharan Africa 2021 – Dealogic 2022
Recognition
The team has a very pragmatic approach to legal issues, very good listening skills, adapting legal requirements to business needs with the proper compliance approach.
Legal 500 2022, Morocco
Members of the team are very personable and easy to work with. They are hugely experienced, capable and hard working.
Legal 500 2022, South Africa
The firm has a strong Africa desk with a proven track record of excellence.
Chambers 2022 Africa-wide
The team at A&O adopts a flexible approach to jurisdictions where the legal framework is not as robust, explained one client, praising the group's ability to adapt to different legal markets.
Chambers 2022 Africa-wide
Our global coverage
Click on the regions in the map below to find out more about the jurisdictions we cover across the world.
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Europe
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Africa
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Asia Pacific
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Middle East
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North America
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Latin America
In addition to countries where we have offices, we also have a number of International Desks advising clients on large scale international transactions in Europe.
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Global Experts and Markets
