Chinese companies doing business in Africa seeks more legal advice

African businessmen attend the China-Africa Investment Forum held in Beijing in July, 2014. Business exchanges between China and Africa are growing more frequent. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Law firms are seeing more business as African contracts become increasingly complex

As Chinese companies become more deeply involved in Africa and hire more local subcontractors and employees, they are starting to seek out legal advice more often on their projects, legal experts say.

"In the last few years we're receiving more and more requests for advice from Chinese companies. And we are seeing other law firms representing more Chinese companies as well," says Pascal Agboyibor, a partner specializing in energy and infrastructure with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, a global law firm with a focus on the technology, energy and financial sectors.

Orrick opened its first affiliated office in Africa just three months ago in Abidjan, the economic hub of Cote d'Ivoire in west Africa. It has 25 other offices in Asia, Europe and North America.

The firm has had a busy Africa practice for some time, and has lawyers in Paris and London who have been working on cases related to Africa for more than 10 years, says James L. Stengel, a partner specializing in mass torts and product liability with Orrick.

About two years ago, it started to see more Chinese clients in its Africa practice as Chinese investments in the continent grew quickly.

"We decided that probably the size of practice and the sum of money handled by the practice in the African continent suggested that we needed to be physically present in Africa," he says. "In terms of our expectations for growth, the Africa practice involving China is obviously great."

Orrick has primarily served the African Development Bank, other such entities or organizations in Africa, or private companies from Europe or the United States doing business there, Stengel says.

At the beginning, Chinese companies were not part of the company's business, and that clientele has developed only in the past few years.

"I think there's a change in how China is investing or acting in Africa, which means there will be more demand for lawyers like us," he says. "If you go back 10 years, even five years or so, the Chinese model in Africa was sort of unitary."