Our background
We founded the firm because we believe in the provision of exemplary legal services to the satisfaction of our clients.
Our team is composed of legal professionals with extensive experience advising both corporate and individual clients. That experience spans a combined thirty years and a portfolio of professional qualifications from Cape Town, Aberdeen, Debrecen, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, Nairobi, Moi, Riara and the Kenya School of Law.
Partners, associates and support staff are united by one aim: to establish this firm as the leading legal service provider in the region. We get there by understanding each client's unique needs and goals, then delivering practical solutions tailored to their circumstances.
Where we sit
Our office is at Baobab House in Westlands Office Park, minutes from Waiyaki Way.
Proximity matters more than it should. Registries, the Competition Authority, county offices, the banks we act for and the banks on the other side of our transactions are all within reach of a morning. A filing that needs a person in the room gets a person in the room, and a question that would take a week by correspondence gets answered the same day.
That is the practical form our third pillar takes. Stakeholder relationships are not an abstraction; they are the difference between counsel that arrives while it is still useful and counsel that arrives after the window has closed.
Our edge
Our approach rests on three things clients tell us are rarer than they should be.
Our problem-solving business acumen lets us identify commercial risks and opportunities, alert clients to them, and help them avoid regulatory pitfalls while their businesses grow. We weigh options against the client's own goals of profit, social impact or speed, rather than against an abstract idea of caution.
Accountability, responsiveness and transparency are the principles we prioritise while collaborating with clients to navigate and coordinate transactions. In practice, that means we answer, we report before we are chased, and we are straight about cost, timing and prospects.
We carefully nurture relationships with stakeholders in the institutions, industries and regions that affect our practice areas and our clients' transactions. That gives us an edge in providing timely and accurate legal counsel, while there is still time to act on it.
Our values
The standard work is held to before it leaves the firm, whether it is a term sheet, an opinion or a completion bundle. Good enough is not a category we use.
Advice that reflects the law and the risk as they are, including when that is not what a client hoped to hear, and including when saying so costs us the instruction.
Clear positions on cost, timing and prospects from the first meeting, and no surprises after it. If an estimate is going to move, you hear it from us first.
Why clients instruct us
Drawn from what clients tell us when they come back, and from what they say was missing at the firm they used before.
A named advocate does the work and a partner owns the engagement. You are not handed down a chain after the pitch.
South Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland are practice groups with named leads, not favours we call in when asked.
Conditions precedent lists, completion mechanics and post-closing calendars run properly, so closings do not slip on housekeeping.
We know how the registries, the Competition Authority, county authorities and sector regulators want things filed, and how long each really takes.
Arbitration, governance audit, construction and second-jurisdiction work come from consultants who do that work, not from improvisation.
Scope and basis agreed in writing before substantive work starts, with an agreed point at which we come back to you rather than bill through it.
How an engagement runs
A transaction is a sequence. Knowing which stage you are in tells you what comes next and what it should cost.
We hear the commercial objective, run our conflict search, and come back with a scope, a team and a fee basis in writing before substantive work begins.
We test the structure against tax, regulatory and competition constraints, run legal due diligence, and report the issues that would change your price or your appetite.
We draft and negotiate the documents, manage conditions precedent, and coordinate lenders, regulators, registries and counterparty counsel.
We close, perfect the security, complete filings and registrations, and hand over a bible plus the post-completion obligations calendar you will need.
Partners, associates, consultants and the administration team that keeps a closing on schedule.
