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| No. of offices | 9 |
|---|---|
| No. of attorneys | 650 |
| No. of employees | 1150 |
| Major practice areas | Corporate Law Firm |
| Key people | Ezra Davids(chairman and senior partner) Alan Keep (managing partner) |
| Date founded | 1885 |
| Founder | Douglas Flemmer Gilfillan, Richard Bowman |
| Website | www |
Bowmans is a globallaw firm headquartered inJohannesburg, South Africa.[1][2] Staffed by over 650 lawyers, it comprises nine offices in six African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Mauritius, and Kenya.[1] It is one of the so-calledBig Five law firms in South Africa.
The legal practice comprises the followinglaw firms: Coulson Harney LLP (Kenya), Koep & Partners (Namibia),[3] Bowmans Mauritius (Mauritius), Bowman Gilfillan (South Africa), Bowmans Tanzania (Tanzania) and B&M Legal Practitioners (Zambia). Bowmans offices are located in Johannesburg,Durban, andCape Town, South Africa;Swakopmund andWindhoek, Namibia;Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;Lusaka, Zambia;Moka, Mauritius; andNairobi, Kenya.[1]
Bowmans has signed alliance agreements with Aman & Partners LLP inEthiopia and Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie inNigeria and has a non-exclusive co-operation agreement with French international law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel.
It is a representative of Lex Mundi, a global association of independent law firms in more than 125 countries.
Bowman Gilfillan was formed through the merger in 1998 of three law firms – Bowman Gilfillan Hayman Godfrey (established 1902), Findlay & Tait (established 1885) and John & Kernick (established 1923).[citation needed]
In January 2025, 57 former members ofA&O Shearman, including 14 partners, joined Bowmans.[4][5] This was after A&O Shearman announced that they would shut down their South African operations.[6]
In 2009, the firm advisedBharti Airtel, India's largest cellular services provider in their proposed acquisition of theMTN Group, the largest announced but uncompleted merger in South Africa's history with a value of $23 billion.[7]
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