US firm Chadbourne & Parke has announced the opening of a South African office with the hiring of a local partner.
Lido Fontana, who joins from leading African firm Bowman Gilfillan, will head up the new Johannesburg office. He will be assisted by London-based partners Agnieszka Klich, Kevin Atkins and Julien Bocobza and Dubai-based partners Sohail Barkatali, Richard Keenan and Yasser Yaqub.
The firm said its focus will be on energy and infrastructure matters, particularly project finance work and that it will be looking to expand its existing pan-African practice through this physical presence on the continent.
The move is just the latest in an ongoing trend of international firms opening offices in South Africa, with the last being Hogan Lovells’s merger with Routledge Modise in late 2013.
The new office becomes Chadbourne’s 12th globally, with locations in ten different countries on five continents.