African firm Bowmans announced today (3 October) that it has hired all the lawyers from A&O Shearman’s shuttered Johannesburg office, including eight partners and a further six lawyers who are set to join as partners.
The moves include Johannesburg office managing partner Gerhard Rudolph and partners Deborah Carmichael, Ze’ev Blieden, Alexandra Clüver, Ryan Nelson, Callum O’Connor, Alessandra Pardini, and Brian Price.
Also joining Bowmans as partners are Mongezi Dlada, Alexandra Fekis, Kelle Gagné, Amanda Jones, Benjamin Mbana, and Nikita Shaw. All of the new hires will start at the firm in January 2025.
Allen & Overy has been in South Africa since 2014, when it launched with the hire of a seven-strong banking and finance team from local firm Bowman Gilfillan, led by banking partner Lionel Shawe. Rudolph and disputes partner O’Connor subsequently joined the office from Baker McKenzie in 2017.
While Shawe left to join White & Case in 2021, the base continued to build, with Clüver, Nelson, and Pardini all joining from Webber Wentzel later that year, followed by Blieden and Price, who came over from Werksmans in 2022, and Carmichael who joined from ENSafrica in March last year.
‘We are excited about this prospect because it aligns with our strategic objective of being the ‘go to’ African law firm in advising clients on their most complex legal challenges and opportunities across the continent’, Bowmans chairman and senior partner Ezra Davids said in a statement. ‘The team’s strengths in the banking, energy, mining and infrastructure sectors together with their expertise in transactional and disputes work across Africa will bolster our offering in these areas.’
Rudolph added: ‘Bowmans has a compelling value proposition. The firm’s comprehensive offering will provide opportunities for our lawyers to expand their practices. Its African footprint will enhance our ability to serve clients and provide access to new mandates.’
The hires for Bowmans come after it deepened its Johannesburg corporate bench in April with the hire of a four-lawyer team from Bakers led by M&A team co-head Angela Simpson.
The news comes less than a month after A&O Shearman revealed its plans to shut in South Africa. The newly merged firm has also said it will cut 10% of its total partnership and shutter the Consulting by A&O Shearman business it first launched in 2018. Other recent partner departures have included London-based private capital sector co-head Philip Bowden, who went to Proskauer in July with acquisition finance partner Megan Lawrence, and City leveraged finance partner Vanessa Xu, who left for Kirkland just before the merger completed in May.
A&O Shearman is not the only major firm pulling out of South Africa; news of its exit was quickly followed by the announcement that Hogan Lovells is also set to pull out of Johannesburg, as well as Sydney and Warsaw.