Legal Services and Activities in East Africa 2024

The legal activities and services sector in East Africa is forecast to experience significant growth as the region is expected to be the fastest growing in Africa in 2024 and 2025. The region’s legal sector is concentrated in Kenya, followed by Tanzania and Uganda. Burundi and Rwanda are smaller markets.

The number of lawyers in the region has grown rapidly in recent years. Kenyan law firms have increased their share of the top 50 law firms on the continent by headcount.

The sector faces a number of key challenges including the independence of the judiciary and rule of law, as well as a high backlog of court cases. The sector is expected to experience an increase in demand for legal services driven by growth in mergers and acquisitions.

Key Trends

• A number of reports of unregistered or fake lawyers.
• Moves to regional integration.
• The digitisation of courts and case documents continues.
• The use of legaltech.
• There has been a significant increase in the number of lawyers in the region in the last 15 years.
• Women make up almost half of junior lawyers, but a minority of partners.

Market Opportunities

• Mergers and acquisitions are set to grow.
• Partnerships between local and foreign law firms eager to take advantage of the region’s growing legal sector.
• The use of legaltech by law firms is an opportunity for innovators.

Challenges

• Barriers for setting up a regional law firm.
• Compliance costs are growing.
• Cyber threats
• Large backlog of cases.
• Pass rates have declined in recent years.
• State interference, corruption, and rule of law.

Market Outlook

• The outlook for the legal services sector in East Africa is optimistic as the region is growing.
• More foreign law firms are likely to set up in the region, driven by a growing number of private-sector opportunities for their clients.
• Kenya is expected to be one of Africa’s five biggest legal markets in 2033, behind Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria.
• The sector faces a number of challenges such as court backlogs, difficulties creating effective regional integration, state interference and corruption in the judicial system.
• There is some concern over the quality of legal education in the region.

The report on legal services and activities in East Africa includes information on the size and state of the industry such as number of lawyers in practice, players, and corporate actions. Issues discussed include the presence of foreign firms, state interference, court backlogs, merger and acquisition activity, regional integration, gender transformation and qualifications.

There are profiles of 22 companies including Anjarwalla & Khanna Advocates, CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates, Dentons Hamilton Harrison & Mathews and Oraro & Company Advocates in Kenya, MMAKS Advocates and AF Mpanga Advocates in Uganda, IMMMA Advocates and FB Attorneys in Tanzania.