2023 African Legal Award winners

Image: African Legal Awards

Hosted by Law.com International, in partnership with the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA) and Africa Legal, the awards seek to honour the industry's brilliant talent across the continent, engaging more of a pan-African audience each year.

This year's prestigious judging panel was made up of a collection of corporate and independent legal minds: Gary Berndt - independent legal consultant; Bertrandt Delport - SSA | BT’s Global; Gail Evans - Steinmüller Africa; Nastacea Faber - Empact Group; Sonia Guerra - HKA; Yolandi Jukes - JD Group; Alison Lee - Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa; Lusani Nelufule-Mugivhi - Discovery Health Medical Scheme; Sandy Oberholzer - independent legal consultant; Karen Pinheiro - independent legal consultant; Shivani Singh - independent legal consultant; Mark Spinner - MV Spinner Incorporated; Ben Smit - BJS Alliance (Pty); Jaco Theunissen - ACTOM; and Lameez Vania - Reckitt Benckiser.

This year, the awards were broken up into three main categories: In-House Awards; Private Practice Awards; and Awards Open To All.

In the In-House category, Sappi SA was named the best small team legal department, while Takealot won for best large team legal department.

Webber Wentzel was the most decorated private practice of the evening with a total of five awards, which included ESG Initiative of the Year Award for the third consecutive year. This award is for the pro bono advice the firm is providing to the Minerals Council of South Africa's Partnership to tackle gender-based violence in mining communities. In their comments, the judges noted that "Webber Wentzel is the continent's driver in ESG".

Said Christo Els, Webber Wentzel senior partner and chair, "Congratulations to Tobia Serongoane, our very own trailblazer, for winning the Private Practice Most Promising Newcomer Award. This award highlights the work done by Tobia on prominent cases, as well as his assistance to a large mining company in conducting an ESG risk assessment of its mining operation in sub-Saharan Africa and for contributing to the wider community by offering pro bono assistance as an Advisory Board Member for various NGOs."

Winners of the 2022 African Legal Awards

7 Sep 2022

Other firms that all won two awards each were Aluko & Oyebode, Allen & Overy, G. Elias, DLA Piper Africa, as well as Olaniwun Ajayi, which took the coveted African Law Firm of the Year award.

Bowmans also took home two awards, which included East African Partner of the Year for Paras Shah, while Dreny & Partners' Sherine El Menyawy and Imane Raouf were named Private Practice Rising Star and North African Partner of the Year respectively.

Other special awards were the Robert Legh Excellence in Leadership, won by Isobel Boaten from AB David, with Professor David McQuoid-Mason winning this year's Lifetime Achievement Award.

See the full list of award winners below:

In-House Awards

Private Practice Awards

Awards Open To All