Helping people achieve their highest potential is at the heart of leadership for Ghanaian lawyer NanaAma Botchway, who was named Partner of the Year – West Africa at the African Legal Awards on Friday night in Johannesburg.
“People often think that the leader has all the answers, and that’s generally not true,” says Botchway, who is the founder and managing partner of leading Ghanaian law firm N. Dowuona & Company, a member of the pan-African alliance ALN.
While leaders can sometimes feel like they’ll disappoint those they lead if they don’t have an answer for everything, the true role is to get the best out of the group. “And leadership, by its very nature, is an exchange. You can’t lead if nobody’s following.”
That interplay between individual leadership, teamwork, and wider impact is demonstrated across a diverse array of 2026 African Legal Awards winners.
Richard Harney SC and Ezra Davids of Bowmans also scooped regional Partner of the Year honours, for East and Southern Africa respectively.
Harney co-founded the firm’s Kenyan practice in 2008, helping grow what was then a two-partner team into a leading corporate and commercial practice. It’s been a privilege to be able to make a contribution to the growth of Kenya’s economy and that of the broader East African region,” says Harney, noting his gratitude for the recognition and to everyone who’s supported him in his career, from his fellow Bowmans partners to team members, his family, and the firm’s great clients.
Davids, the chairman and Senior Partner at Bowmans, similarly looked beyond the individual recognition. “The most rewarding aspect of this work is leading teams of outstanding lawyers, collaborating closely with other advisors, learning about various countries’ way of doing business, partnering with clients to navigate complexity and successfully closing transactions that stand the test of time.”
Botchway’s success was also part of a wider story of collaboration.
ALN was named African Network/Alliance of the Year for a second consecutive year, while its Kenyan member firm Anjarwalla & Khanna (ALN Kenya) won the Private Equity and Tax team honours. ALN said such recognition reflected deep local expertise and the “power of collaboration” across Africa.
While some of this year’s winners demonstrated leadership through building teams and businesses, another showed what it can mean simply to stand beside someone, and to keep standing there over many years, despite setbacks and challenges.
In 2009, an 18-year-old Caster Semenya had just become 800m world champion when she found herself at the centre of a dispute over her right to compete. She had no legal support. Deneys executive director Greg Nott chose to stand with her.
What followed was 15 years of representation, as a South African athlete and her legal team took an increasingly global battle through the structures of world sport and into courtrooms in Europe. Finally, on 10 July last year, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights found that Semenya’s right to a fair hearing had been violated. That sustained commitment was recognised by Deneys winning the CSR, Diversity, Transformation, and Economic Empowerment Award.
For Deneys, it sits within a longer tradition. The pioneering firm represented anti-Apartheid activists in the 1980s and says it provides 17,000 hours each year to people unable to afford legal services. Its reflection after the awards distilled the connection: “Fifteen years beside one athlete is the same principle, held for longer.”
Across different contexts, the 2026 African Legal Awards repeatedly showed African lawyers looking beyond national boundaries. DLA Piper and its African member firms were recognised across several jurisdictions and disciplines, including IKM Advocates in Kenya winning for Environment, Energy & Natural Resources, Olajide Oyewole in Nigeria for Intellectual Property, and Chibesakunda & Co in Zambia for Banking & Finance. DLA Piper Africa was also named East African Law Firm of the Year, while DLA Piper took International Law Firm of the Year.
DLA Piper Africa’s model draws much of its strength from lawyers embedded within various nations, combining deep local knowledge and expertise with broader relationships and capabilities extending across borders in Africa and internationally.
But there is no single model for successful pan-African reach. Nigerian firm Moroom Africa, named Employment Law Team of the Year, said its recognition reflected the work of a team serving clients across the continent. Managing partner Dayo Adu encapsulated its ambition succinctly: “One Africa. One Standard.”
Leadership, too, extended beyond historic notions of what lawyers’ do. .
Microsoft’s Andréa Campbell won both Senior In-House Legal Counsel of the Year and Women Leaders in Law – In-House. The judges praised her for a leadership brand that was “far more than legal expertise”, highlighting the breadth of Campbell’s impact and the ways she has influenced markets and created pathways for others.
Zara Jamal, a partner at Mozambique’s JLA Advogados and its Portuguese partner firm Abreu Advogados, was selected from 12 finalists as the winner of Women Leaders in Law – Private Practice. Her accolade reflected leadership across banking, corporate and regulatory law, international project finance and Islamic banking, adding another Lusophone and cross-border dimension to the evening.
Webber Wentzel, which scooped six awards on the night, illustrated another reality of modern legal leadership: the need to keep evolving. The South African firm was named African Law Firm of the Year along with Southern African Law Firm of the Year, while its other four category awards ranged from traditional pillars of commercial practice like M&A, to technology, innovation, and ESG, reflecting some of the evolving demands facing African firms and their clients.
Celebrating the firm’s success, Managing Partner Safiyya Patel looked beyond the trophies to the “extraordinary people” behind the honours. “Their talent, commitment, teamwork and constant drive to be better are what make Webber Wentzel what it is.”
While several large African law firms and alliances were honoured at the 2026 African Legal Awards, excellence and legal leadership was also on show from a variety of other legal practices and locations. Ghana’s Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah won the medium-sized M&A honour, while Nigerian firms Odujinrin & Adefulu and Punuka Attorneys & Solicitors received the Capital Markets and Litigation and Dispute Resolution honours, respectively.
LnP Beyond Legal, a pan-African boutique commercial firm with offices in South Africa and Mauritius, was named Specialist Law Firm of the Year, while the geographic breadth of this year’s winners was further underlined by the regional firm honours, with Egypt’s ADSERO – Ragy Soliman & Partners and Nigeria’s Banwo & Ighodalo recognised across North and West Africa respectively.
Now in their 13th year, the African Legal Awards received more than 600 submissions this year, while 20 African countries have been represented over the past three years.
With African legal excellence celebrated across more than 40 different categories at a glittering ceremony, perhaps the clearest thread running across the evening was one epitomised by Botchway’s thoughts on leadership. Leading the way in African law isn’t about having all the answers. More often, it means drawing the best from others, combining expertise, opening pathways, adapting to change, or choosing to stand beside someone, no matter the challenges, when they need help.
Leadership, after all, is an exchange.
