Developments in our 2026 Africa coverage, DEI updates and new practice areas to submit for in 2027

On the 12th of February 2026, we at Chambers launched our Global Guide 2026, the most comprehensive guide to date. This guide ranks the highest-ever number of law firms across Lusophone and Anglophone Africa. A total of 683 law firms have been recognised in our coverage across various practice areas. We have also ranked 1696 lawyers, the majority of those being practitioners in the continent’s most competitive and active markets, such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.

South Africa-headquartered law firms continue to dominate the Africa rankings as a whole. ENS is a clear leader overall, with 45 department rankings. In second place this year comes Bowmans, notable for its addition of a new ranking for Namibia following its recent merger with Koep & Partners – itself illustrative of Namibia’s growing importance within the global oil and gas sector. Webber Wentzel is third, with 29 department rankings. However, it climbs to the top spot if we look purely at South African rankings, where it obtains 23 rankings relative to Bowmans and ENS, in joint-second place with 22.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr achieves 28 department rankings. Cliffe Dekker’s growth is noteworthy – it has historically been far less international than ENS or Bowmans, with only domestic rankings within South Africa. This changed in 2021, following its merger with Nairobi-based Kieti Law, subsequently gaining a slew of new Kenya rankings. It has also since expanded to Namibia.

At the time of launching, the top five is rounded out by international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. However, 14 of Norton Rose’s 25 rankings are in the South Africa domestic rankings. In November 2025, it was announced that Norton Rose would be parting ways with its South African arm, which will once again become an independent law firm at the end of March 2026. Minus its South African rankings, Norton Rose falls outside the top ten, relying on a combination of its Morocco and Africa-Wide rankings for its representation in Africa.

The representation of women in the rankings has always been a key area of discussion. Across different jurisdictions, in the region and globally, women now make up almost half the total number of qualified lawyers, and yet they occupy fewer positions of leadership in comparison with their male counterparts and appear less frequently in the rankings (Gender gap in law at risk of widening amid diversity pullback).

In recent years we have noticed a slow and steady transition as women start to appear more frequently in submissions, their names highlighted more frequently to our researchers in conversations with key clients as well as with peer law firms.

Female lawyers made significant gains in South Africa, with a total of 24 women newly recognised in Chambers Global 2026. Practice areas such as Environment, Employment and Projects & Energy saw a particularly high proportion of newly ranked women, in comparison to larger ranking tables such as Corporate/M&A and Dispute Resolution.

Across Anglophone and Lusophone Africa, the 2026 rankings demonstrate the smallest gap yet between the percentage of ranked men and women; looking at the region as a whole, 69.4% of ranked lawyers are men, 30.4% are women. Africa’s vast diversity of cultures and levels of economic development mean that individual countries perform at different levels. Angola and Ghana stand out in particular for nearly bridging this gap: 42.9% of ranked lawyers in Angola are women, while in Ghana, women represent 47.4% of the total. At the other end of the spectrum, countries such as Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe display a much higher difference in the relative percentages of ranked male and female lawyers, on average representing an 80/20 split between men and women. Even here however, progress is being made, and we anticipate an even higher percentage of female lawyers in years to come.

Our Global Guide 2026 launches exciting developments for different practice areas and jurisdictions. Some of these are set out below.

Botswana and Uganda: These jurisdictions have been previously ranked as General Business Law, a broad-ranging category that covers all aspects of corporate law. Now, for the first time, we have separated the previous General Business Law rankings for these two countries into separate rankings of Corporate/Commercial and Dispute Resolution.

This allows firms to better showcase their transactional, regulatory and contentious work, and clients who look at our rankings for further information regarding the firms in both jurisdictions will be able to best inform their decisions based on the specialisation of the rankings of both firms and lawyers.

South Africa: Life Sciences: We have introduced a new table to recognise Life Sciences lawyers in South Africa. Firms are invited to submit relevant regulatory or transactional work for the Life Sciences sector. Healthcare-related mandates can also be included.

South Africa: Dispute Resolution: Advocates: We continue to expand our recognition of advocates in the South African market. Our Global Guide 2026 rankings for this section contain the largest number of ranked advocates, recognising not only silks, but also junior advocates. We welcome submissions from advocates directly.

Zambia: Following the data collected throughout our 2025 research cycle, we have also decided to open Zambia submissions for both Corporate/Commercial and Dispute Resolution, further strengthening the coverage of that market. Those separate rankings will be launched in the Global Guide 2027.

Our first submission deadline for Global Guide 2027 was on the 17th of February, with later submission deadlines falling on 18th of March and 20th of May. To find out more about each practice area and its deadlines, please visit our online research schedule here: Research Schedule.

You can learn more about submission best practices in my recent conversation with our Head of AMECO Research, Ollie Dimsdale, and the CEO of Excellent Consulting Feizin Amlani, here: Africa Submissions.

Detailed practice area definitions can also be found at our website here: Practice Area Definitions FAQs.

If you have any questions regarding submissions, research process and our coverage of the Anglophone and Lusophone markets in Africa, please do contact [email protected] or [email protected]. Queries related to Francophone Africa should be directed to [email protected].