Aluko & Oyebode brace up for Continental honours

Counting down to the African Legal Awards 2014, coming up tomorrow, Friday, October 31st, in Johannesburg, Nigerian law firm, Aluko & Oyebode, nominated as ‘African Law Firm of the year,’ is set to take its place at the prestigious event in South Africa’s largest city.

The shortlist, released a few weeks ago and published here in LEGALBUSINESS, features Aluko & Oyebode (Nigeria), Kenya’s Anjarwalla & Khanna, three South African law firms – Bowman Gilfillan, DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, Webber Wentzel, as well as another Kenya firm, Hamilton Harrison & Mathews as nominees for the ‘African Law Firm of the year’ category.

Aluko & Oyebode has also been nominated for the M&A Team of the Year Banking, Finance and Restructuring Team of the Year, as well as the Competition and Regulatory Team of the Year, alongside firms like Allen & Overy; Baker & Mckenzie; Bowman Gilfillan; Herbert Smith Freehills; Linklaters; Norton Rose Fulbright; Webber Wentzel; Werksmans, White & Case, etc.

On the shortlist for ‘International Law Firm of the Year’ are Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Eversheds, Norton Rose Fulbright, and White & Case.

Other categories include M&A Team Of The Year, Energy And Natural Resources Team Of The Year, Commercial Team Of The Year, Transportation And Infrastructure Team Of The Year, Property And Construction Team Of The Year, Innovation Award, CSR Award, Diversity Initiative Of The Year, Legal Department Of The Year, etc.

In these categories, we find firms like Clifford Chance; Baker & Mckenzie; Bowman Gilfillan; Allen & Overy; Herbert Smith Freehills; Linklaters; Norton Rose Fulbright; DLA Piper; Eversheds; Hogan Lovells; Norton Rose Fulbright; Webber Wentzel; White & Case; Werksmans; Akin Gump; Anglo American; Aspen Pharmacare; First National Bank; GE Africa; MultiChoice Africa (regulatory affairs team); AFGRI; Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (Africa and regulatory legal team); Eskom (construction team); Life Healthcare Group, etc., dominating the lists.

The African Legal Awards, hosted by Legal Week – a legal publication dedicated to commercial lawyers around the globe, in collaboration with the Corporate Lawyers Association of South Africa (CLASA), set out to recognise exceptional achievement within the African legal profession.

The winners will be announced at awards ceremony, which takes place tomorrow, Friday, October 31st, at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg.

It would be recalled that Aluko & Oyebode only recently won multiple awards including the ‘Law Firm of the Year Award’ at the ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards 2014, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria last month.

The firm has maintained its first tier position in the league of top commercial law firms here in Nigeria while dominating the charts on global legal rankings, such as the Legal 500, Chambers and Partners Legal Guide/Global Awards, WhoisWho Legal, IFLR 1000,

Over 2013-14, the corporate team won panel appointments and new clients in Standard Chartered Private Equity and IHS Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms infrastructure provider, among others.