Global annual report
Cape Verde clients now demand more from their legal
advisers
Unlike in previous years, businesses operating in Cape Verde now place more of an emphasis on
quality and price and are less loyal to their legal advisers
Clients in Cape Verde now have much
higher expectations in terms of what
they want from their legal advisers than
they did in previous years, says Nelson
Raposo Bernardo, managing partner at
Raposo Bernardo & Associados.
“With clients now having higher
standards with which to compare legal
services, they are already making more
demands than they did five or ten years
ago,” he says. “Knowing the true value of
these legal services, they are prioritising
quality and price over loyalty – more
importantly, they are requiring that the
law firm has an effective presence in their
country.” There are a range of sectors in
Cape Verde that are providing significant
opportunities for law firms and they
include infrastructure, planning, real
estate, finance, transports and logistics,
according to Raposo Bernardo.
Raposo Bernardo draws parallels with
Angola when he describes the Cape Verde
legal market. “Not only are their [Cape
Verde and Angola’s] legal systems quite
evolved, they are in line with the world’s
most developed countries in terms of
legislation and local implementation,” he
says. However, there is also a key difference
between the legal markets of Cape Verde
and Angola, according to Raposo Bernardo.
“While Angola has become an attractive
country for business, when it comes to legal
services, despite obvious similarities with
Cape Verde, there is strong competition
from local law firms as well as international
ones,” he explains.
Raposo Bernardo continues: “Such
is the sophistication of legal services in
Cape Verde and Angola, companies are
now working in partnership on various
projects with leading international law
firms, which is having a positive influence
on the development of legal advocacy
practice. However, while all of these
factors benefit clients and substantially
contribute towards developing the legal
services market, it is when law firms
understand how to do business in Africa
and have the financial capacity to adopt
a long-term perspective that excellent
opportunities are to be found.”
Nelson Raposo Bernardo
Corruption and bureaucracy are major challenges for
law firms working abroad
Two of the biggest challenges law firms
can face when working abroad are
bureaucracy and corruption, according to
Inês Albuquerque e Castro, a partner at
FCB Sociedade de Advogados.
She adds: “We need to have local
partners and people on the ground to
solve those problems, working with
partners that can provide the client with
the same standard of work that they are
used to.”
Albuquerque e Castro says that the
ability to provide a multi-jurisdictional
service is very important to clients and
is one of their main requirements when
choosing a law firm. “We must be able to
provide services in new markets and in
new sectors of activity,” she adds.
international expansion plans, Albuquerque
e Castro says. “They are two very healthy
markets, and we believe it is important to
have a presence there because the clients are
there,” she says. “We must therefore adjust
and adapt our way of working to this new
reality,” Albuquerque e Castro adds.
Watch at Iberian Lawyer TV
Healthy markets
Given their cultural and linguistic
similarity to Portugal, Angola and
Mozambique remain the priority for
Portuguese law firms with regard to their
www.iberianlawyer.com
July / August 2016 • IBERIAN LAWYER • 39