Adams & Adams

Chairman: Gérard du Plessis
Number of partners: 65
Number of lawyers: 140
Languages:English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and various African languages including Sotho, Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, SiSwati, Venda, Afrikaans, Tsonga

Firm Overview:
Adams & Adams is an internationally recognised and leading African law firm that specialises in providing intellectual property (IP), corporate and commercial services.

As the largest IP law practice in Africa, and a leading corporate, property, and commercial law firm in South Africa, the firm prides itself on the ground-breaking work it does and the valuable client relationships it has built with many of the world’s largest corporations and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises.

Based in South Africa with branches and associate offices throughout Africa, the firm works with clients around the globe and across industries to protect, enforce, and commercialise their valuable IP.

Boasting a range of legal services, from acquisition, enforcement, and commercialisation of IP rights, Adams & Adams also offers counsel and the handling of transactions in cases involving patents, copyrights, trade marks, designs, licensing, and data security. Its expert IP team also litigate these issues in courts across Africa, helping clients achieve success.

Likewise, the Adams & Adams general commercial and litigation legal services practices boast competent and powerful teams that are purposed to represent clients in expertise areas such as commercial and contract law, commercial litigation, property services, public procurement, banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, tax, exchange control, franchising, competition, labour, personal injury, arbitration and dispute resolution, among others. As a leader among law firms involved in commercial services and other corporate transactions, the transactional and litigation experience of its attorneys, the breadth of its practice and the geographical reach of our offices in Africa have allowed the firm to maintain a competitive leadership position, representing a broad array of public and private companies, private equity firms and financial institutions, governmental entities, and other institutions and individuals in almost every type of commercial law situation.

Adams & Adams is firmly rooted in Africa – with a tenacious belief in the economic growth potential and spirit of the continent. Its head office in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, provides the perfect gateway through which its partners, supported by some 700 professionals and staff, render a broad range of legal services to clients in Africa and the rest of the world.

Through its associate offices and long-established networks, Adams & Adams serves its global client base throughout the African continent – in matters of intellectual property, commercial law, property and litigation. Hosting regular network meetings with its partners from across Africa, the firm successfully maintains relationships, builds capacity, and shares recent updates on IP, corporate and commercial developments taking place on the continent. Adams & Adams regularly hosts a meeting of partners from associate offices throughout the continent – a network meeting designed to maintain relationships, build capacity and share information about updates on intellectual property and corporate & commercial developments across the continent.


Main Areas of Practice:
■ All Areas of Intellectual Property Law & Related
■ Litigation
■ Administrative Law & Constitutional Services
■ Banking & Finance
■ Competition
■ Commercial & Contract Law
■ Construction & Dispute Resolution Services
■ Consumer Protection & Franchising
■ Corporate Services
■ E-commerce & Information Technology
■ Exchange Control
■ Family & Matrimonial Disputes
■ Public Procurement
■ Insolvency, Liquidation, Sequestration & Ancillary
■ Services
■ Insurance
■ Labour & Employment Services
■ All Civil Litigation
■ Mergers & Acquisitions
■ Property & Conveyancing
■ Professional Negligence, including Medical
■ Malpractice
■ Personal Injury
■ Tax & Estate Planning

Branches & Associate Offices In Africa:
For assistance or contact with one of the firm’s associate offices across Africa: [email protected]
Adams & Adams has offices in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and associate offices in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon (OAPI), Egypt (North Africa), Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Mozambique (ARIPO), Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania (including Zanzibar) and Zimbabwe.

African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO):
For assistance or contact with one of the firm’s associate offices in a member state of ARIPO:
Email: [email protected]
■ Botswana
■ Gambia
■ Ghana
■ Kenya
■ Lesotho
■ Liberia
■ Malawi
■ Mozambique
■ Namibia
■ Rwanda
■ São Tomé and Príncipe
■ Sierra Leone
■ Somalia
■ Sudan
■ Swaziland
■ Tanzania
■ Uganda
■ Zambia
■ Zimbabwe

The Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI):
For assistance or contact with one of the firm’s associate offices in a member state of OAPI:
Email: [email protected]
■ Benin
■ Burkina Faso
■ Cameroon
■ Central African Republic
■ Chad
■ Republic of Congo
■ Ivory Coast
■ Equatorial Guinea
■ Gabon
■ Guinea
■ Guinea-Bissau
■ Mali
■ Mauritania
■ Niger
■ Senegal
■ Togo
■ Comoros