Category: Articles

Hewu Attorneys is a corporate commercial law firm with a strong inclination towards corporate tax, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and dispute resolution. With its offices located in Fourways, Johannesburg, the firm provides clients across the sectors of financial services, energy, health, hospitality, gambling and information technology.

The firm was established by Bartlett in August 2011, after 11 years in private practice with one client NBC Holdings, an employee benefits funds administrator, which has a footprint in South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, Lesotho and Ghana.

At Hewu Attorneys, they have recognised the need to provide holistic seamless solutions for clients and in this regard they have, amongst others, brokered an association with a leading black owned forensic services company. Their professional team is committed to service excellence, professionalism and integrity in their dealings with each and every client of the firm.

There are a range of services which Hewu Attorneys deliver. They provide cost effective legal services that meet with clients’ expectations, constantly communicate and provide status briefings on clients’ matters and deliver on their mandates on reasonable time frames to add value to clients’ business. Also, the firm invests in long term mutually beneficial relationships with its clients, striving to understand clients’ business operations in order to provide holistic and seamless solutions. In addition, Hewu Attorneys endeavours to be a responsible corporate citizen informed by the socio-economic challenges facing its communities and is committed to the Bartlett Hewu of Hewu Attorneys, a commercial law firm, chats to us about the company’s accomplishments in South Africa and the successful partnerships they have built in the MEA region.

stakeholder approach of doing business by taking care of their employees, suppliers and clients.
The firm also has a list of values which they adhere to in order to ensure a successful and happy client relationship. Firstly, they aim to perform all mandates to the best of their abilities, to provide high quality service to clients and to be transparent with clients and set realistic delivery time frames.

Bartlett Hewu explains how he has seen the firm grow substantially, telling us, ‘We service blue-chip clientele, corporates, private equity funds, state owned and municipal owned entities. Our ongoing strategy is to ensure that we employ like-minded people who share the same vision and values as those of the firm. We continually embark in further education and development of our human capital. We also have a sizeable clientele in the MEA region. We are a firm founded on the principle of integrity, service excellence, innovation and ‘ubuntu’ ‘ an African word which roughly translates to ‘humanity towards others’.’

In order to adequately advise a new client, Bartlett believes it’s always important to understand the clients’ needs and their business operations. Understanding and honesty can forge strong partnerships with clients. ‘Upon receipt of an instruction, a preliminary view of our understanding of the issues will be sent to the client for confirmation and approval. Afterwards, a few scenarios with attendant consequences will be explored before a definitive cause of action is undertaken. This is geared towards an efficient and cost effective legal service to the client. For instance, if it is befitting to settle a matter before incurring any further fees and costs, then that is what we advise our client.

‘I remember an instance during my first consultation with a client whereby, I advised the client to walk away from a deal in Switzerland after understanding the transaction and issues involved. The simple reason was that there was no value in the deal for our client. That advice culminated in a long lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with the client.’

The Middle East and Africa region has benefitted from the experience that Hewu Attorneys provides. The firm has made strong client partnerships in the region, as Bartlett describes.
‘Over the past five years we have advised on several cross border transactions in the MEA region. We continue to forge and establish strong relationships with our colleagues and clients in the region. We were voted and received an award for the ‘Most Innovative Commercial Law Firm in 2016′ by Acquisition International.’

‘Africa is an emerging market and with a huge potential for growth. Over the past five years or so, the continent has attracted multinational law firms to its shores. In South Africa, we have a Legal Practice Act which seeks to regulate the professions of solicitors and barristers under one body. This results in clients being able to procure the services of barristers directly without the traditional route of accessing these services through the assistance of solicitors.’

Bartlett explains how technology is used throughout Hewu Attorneys to ensure a more efficient client experience. ‘We have IT infrastructure and an IT support team. The practice management and billing systems including hardware are state of the art. Our website is linked to Google ads. Reports to clients and bookkeeping are all integrated in the practice management and billings systems. Data back-up is done religiously and we use the Microsoft cloud. In addition, we use digital transcription machines and dictaphones for interviews with clients.’

Investment in development and training for staff enhances Hewu Attorneys reputation in the industry, making the firm stand out from its competitors.

‘We invest in our human capital and promote further education and development at the firm’s expense. We believe in strength in our diversity and practise what we preach. In addition, it can be difficult to obtain new clients and it can be easy to lose them. This keeps us on our toes, thus we never take our clients for granted.’

‘Our ethos is that our precious commodity is our staff and our bosses are our clients. Every day we join forces with my team to service our clients who in turn pay our bills. Somebody once said to me, when you pay an engineer you will have something to show for it; when you pay for a service, it is difficult to measure the value received against the payment. Hence we adopt the value added approach to our clients’ affairs. We have since realised the truth of the saying ‘business is built on relationships’ and cash flow is key to the survival of any business.’

To be a successful leader, Bartlett believes that there are qualities that are integral to success. In addition to being well-motivated, having a positive and hardworking team are important at Hewu Attorneys. ‘I’d like to think that I am personable and dependable, a great listener, not averse to risk and never shy away from a challenge. I am willing to learn, and I am always looking for new opportunities. I believe in team work and trust the abilities and competence of my team. I take a keen and special interest in the welfare and wellbeing of my staff.’

‘To stay motivated, I have stayed true to myself and set realistic and attainable short to medium term goals and focussing on them until they are achieved without losing hope. I am an avid reader of business and political biographies and learn from other people’s experiences and I always tell myself that the best is yet to come.’

In the future, Hewu Attorneys aims to build a medium size multidisciplinary firm and to maintain high levels of integrity. According to Bartlett, the firm will aim to have strategic partnerships across the MEA region.

Company: Hewu Inc. Attorneys
Name: Bartlett Hewu
Email: [email protected]
Web Address: www.hewu.co.za 
Address: Ground Floor, Block 9, Fourways Office Park, Cnr Fourways Boulevard & Roos Street, Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa
Telephone: +27 (0) 11 465 7901

Kamal Habachi is a partner at Bakouchi & Habachi – HB Law Firm LLP. Located in Morocco, the legal firm specialises in all areas of business law.

Founded in 2006 by Mrs Salima Bakouchi, ‘Bakouchi & Habachi – HB Law Firm LLP’ is a multidisciplinary firm of business lawyers with expertise in business law. The firm is designed to provide assistance to public & private institutions, financial institutions and individuals with legal and tax benefits of high quality in consulting, pre litigation and litigation.

In 2012, the firm was transformed through a professional partnership of lawyers. The choice of legal firm reflects a willingness of partners to pool the expertise of lawyers, which is in the client’s exclusive interest.

Kamal Habachi speaks to us about what the law firm offers to its clients. ‘The activity of our firm, composed of lawyers and attorneys advice, and the diversity of our focus areas, allow us to assist, advise and defend our clients both in negotiations and support before the Moroccan courts . In order to effectively reach the needs of our customers, our firm maintains close professional relationships with governments, social partners and some international firms.

‘Our law firm is specialised in all areas of business law. The firm is divided into two complementary departments, department of litigation and the department of counselling. Thus, we provide to private companies and public institutions, legal services of the highest quality. Our client approach involves providing a full range of services to cover all the clients’ needs and to make them feel secure with a professional services provider.’

By continuously providing clients with a high quality legal service, they have built up strong working partnerships. Kamal remarks that having knowledge of the market is another reason why Bakouchi & Habachi have remained successful in Morocco.

‘The strategy of our firm is to provide high valueadded legal services. It offers a full range of services covering all clients’ legal and tax needs. The firm has lawyers from different backgrounds, thus enabling the firm to handle all the legal and tax issues a company may face.

Also, and in a continuously changing environment, the firm seeks to broaden its areas of expertise and to build on the strengths of the HB Law Firm team to cater to all its clients’ needs. We strictly comply with the profession’s exacting code of conduct. Our ongoing business strategy is to set up a full services and proximity with the client and to build a partnership for punctual project or day to day business.’

‘Our strong skills and good knowledge of the Moroccan market make us one of the business leaders in our sector. Also, being aware of the international laws, conventions and treaties ratified by Morocco, is very important in order to provide high quality legal services. We implement the best technology, maintain secure data and files, and we are assisted by professional services providers.’

The MEA region has benefitted from Bakouchi & Habachi’s experience. They have gone on to help many companies in Morocco, whilst also facing the challenges of the country’s legal system. Knowledge of the region appears to be the secret to their success.

‘Our law firm helped many international firms to get established in Morocco. We have helped to facilitate many Moroccan companies to implement their business in other countries in Africa, as well as helping an important number of companies to face legal issues that had a huge impact on the company worldwide.’

‘Morocco has adopted and amended many laws in the last decade. In consequence, many challenges are arising out of those changes: e.g. companies must comply with all these laws mainly in corporate law, anti-trust law, consumption law, and the protection of personal data law.
Furthermore, Casablanca has become a regional hub, a gate to the African continent which offers many challenges and opportunities to our country as many big firms have decided to get established in Casablanca.’

Kamal Habachi states that the law firm ‘remains open to new ideas and different points of view.’ Bakouchi & Habachi’s future plans include hiring lawyers from different backgrounds and cultures, creating a more diverse workforce. Another goal of the firm is to make Bakouchi & Habachi more important in the industry, both in terms of the quality of their work and the quantity of their clients.

Company: Bakouchi & Habachi- HB Law
Firm Name: Kamal Habachi
Email: [email protected]
Web Address: www.hblaw.ma
Address: 6, Farabi Street, R’sidence Toubkal, 2nd floor, Casablanca, Morocco
Telephone: +212 522 474193