IFLR Awards Africa 2021
Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office recognised as National Firm of the Year for Ethiopia.
Leading firm takes Ethiopia award home at the second IFLR Africa Awards
Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office is delighted to have been chosen as National Firm of the Year – Ethiopia at the prestigious IFLR Africa Awards. The firm saw off fierce competition from other firms in the country, prevailing thanks to its demonstration of innovative and complex legal work over the past year.
Jamie Rayat, awards editor for the IFLR Africa Awards: “The IFLR Africa Awards recognizes legally innovative and complex work in cross-border transactions. Winners of the National Firm of the Year categories are firms that have demonstrated a strong track record providing local law advice on the most innovative deals closed in the awards review period.
Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office impressed IFLR’s internal judging panel with its performance across several disciplines, but perhaps its most notable work over the review period was in the M&A sphere. The firm advised a consortium of investors/bidders on a landmark acquisition of a national telecommunications license in Ethiopia, which was the ever liberalization of the telecommunication service to private investors in the country.
The transaction was novel and significant in the context of the domestic economy, and the firm successfully advised consortium members from different jurisdictions on local law matters, despite the challenge of no legal precedents existing for many aspects of this deal.”
IFLR Editor John Crabb said of the awards: “We are delighted to be able to present the winners of the second annual IFLR Africa Awards, which celebrates the most innovative cross-border transactions in Africa’s markets.
This year, we expanded our coverage to better recognize in-house teams and lawyers and to include Morocco and Tunisia within the awards. This is part of our commitment to keep developing our coverage of the transactions that are defining the African market and the firms, teams, and lawyers behind them. We believe it is important to highlight this work now, as it will shape what is to come next.
There is a great deal of innovation this year in the awards. Lawyers and dealmakers had to think creatively to adapt to extremely challenging market conditions and to best position their organizations for the future. Much of the work recognized in the awards will have a meaningful impact on the ground and on the development of market practice. Congratulations to all those shortlisted and all the winners.”
About the Awards:
The IFLR Africa Awards celebrates the most legally innovative cross-border transactions closed between June 2020 and June 2021 and the teams and lawyers behind them. Now in its second year, the IFLR Africa Awards provides an unrivaled opportunity to showcase the expertise of Africa-based firms and lawyers. The awards also highlight the specialized teams in international law firms that are leading the way on African transactions.
IFLR focuses on legal innovation in cross-border dealmaking, recognizing deals that break new legal ground, set precedents and develop the legal environment for cross-border corporate finance. A keen focus is on deals that improve the investment environment.
When searching for innovation, IFLR considers new transaction structures or legal instruments, deals that clarify regulatory frameworks, and deals that introduce new legal technology to local markets. The internal IFLR editorial panel also assesses the difficulty and intricacy of the innovation, alongside its likely market impact.
Judged independently by IFLR’s editors, the Africa Awards is the culmination of months of research, analyzing countless submissions and interviewing hundreds of lawyers. This year’s winners were announced in a virtual ceremony on September 9 2021.
