Middle East and Africa

Debevoise has a successful track record advising international clients as well as local clients undertaking transformational projects or facing business-critical disputes.

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Contacts

Geoffrey P. Burgess

Lord Goldsmith QC

Geoffrey Kittredge

Reuters Video Highlights UN Sustainable Development Goals in Action at Debevoise

Recognition

The team was awarded “Global Pro Bono Deal of the Year” by The American Lawyer in it’s annual Global Legal Awards. The award was in recognition for our representation of Opportunity International in its sale of a majority stake in Kinshasa, a microfinance institution operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to VisionFund International. Opportunity International remains a 20% shareholder. Opportunity International is a next generation microfinance organization that invests philanthropic and social impact capital to spark and scale innovative solutions to global poverty.

The group has “considerable knowledge and skill in negotiating, drafting and supporting complex and challenging transactions in Africa”.

Geoffrey Burgess is recommended for M&A deals

—The Legal 500

Peter Goldsmith QC has an impressively global disputes practice, handling arbitrations in Africa, Europe and Asia.

—Chambers UK

Thought Leadership

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Ranked as a leading firm for work in emerging markets by The Legal 500 UK

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Debevoise works with clients taking their first steps into the Middle East and Africa, from making a greenfield investment, structuring a new regionally focused fund, or creating new joint ventures with local partners.The Middle East and Africa team is led by a group of senior partners with particular experience in investments, joint ventures, projects, complex commercial contracts, compliance matters and disputes. The team has advised a range of clients in these areas, including major financial institutions, private equity firms, international strategic investors, governments, sovereign wealth funds and local corporates.The firm has been particularly active in private equity, advising on numerous headline acquisitions as well as on the formation of Middle East and Africa-focused funds. The team includes recognized industry leaders, many of whom take active roles in prominent private equity trade associations. These include the Legal & Regulatory Committee of the African Private Equity & Venture Capital Association and the Legal & Regulatory Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association.The firm’s arbitration and litigation practices also have experience in the region acting in high-profile disputes, compliance diligence, investigative work and investment protection claims, often cross-border in nature.

Middle East/Africa