Big or small law firm? When it’s the size of the fight in the law firm and not its size that matters most To be small and big at the same time, sounds rather exaggerated but yes, that is what most analysts say is going to be a majority of service firms, including law firms of the future. Right-sized but not small, not top heavy but rather with the right skillset mix and not expensive but rather right-priced. One law firm, daring to play in that space is Cymbell Advocates, a brainchild of four lawyer friends- all of them with big dreams- dreams to create what in their words is Uganda’s most outstanding law firm that represents clients locally and globally in today’s global village. Meet the four learned friends, the co-founding partners of Cymbell.

One of Uganda’s most recent and biggest public interest cases that have rocked our cover pages has been a Constitutional Court petition by development activist, Morrison Rwakakamba through his Agency for Transformation, seeking for declarations that certain sections of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Act are unconstitutional as they violate workers’ rights and interests in their savings held with the Fund.

In the petition, Rwakakamba challenges some sections in the NSSF Act Cap 222 that he says do not make a provision for members’ perpetual and non-extinguishable interest in the Fund. He says under current law, members’ accounts are not treated as property capable of being dealt in by the members or inherited by the beneficiaries of the estate of the member in the case of death. Through his lawyers, Cymbell Advocates, he argues that such provisions are inconsistent with and are in contravention of Objective IX, X, XIV(a) and (b), XXVI of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, Articles 2, 8A, 20, 26, 287 of the Constitution.

In the July 8^th amended suit brought against the Attorney General and the NSSF itself, Mr. Rwakakamba further says that Section 30 of the NSSF Act, vests too much powers in the Minister of Finance and the Fund’s board in investing members’ funds and neither provides for the deeper involvement of members nor providers for checks and balances against any possible wrongdoing. He further says that allowing the Minister powers to appoint the board, without member participation by a majority vote is unconstitutional.  Additionally, Rwakakamba says that the five benefits provided by the NSSF Act, excluding emergencies caused by natural calamities or global pandemics such as Covid-19, is restrictive and denies the majority of the Fund beneficiaries their right to livelihood, hence inconsistent with and in contravention of the State Policy and the Constitution.

Rwakakamba prays for amongst many other orders, a restraining order against NSSF and all its agents and workers from depriving the beneficiaries’ access to their money midterm and wants NSSF to pay to its members, a partial 20 percent to cushion and propel members out of the economic distress occasioned by the current Covid-19 pandemic.

While there is no doubt about both the significance and the size of this constitutional application, there is one particular thing about this application. While you would have expected the petitioner to pick one of the city’s big law firms to battle the Attorney General and his army of senior lawyers, as well as an NSSF which retains the services of some of the finest law firms in the land, the petitioners instead opted for Cymbell Advocates, a new commercial law firm in town.

But why would anyone want to pick a new law firm like Cymbell which is barely a year old for such a high stakes suit?

In his words, Rwakakamba says, he was looking for a specialised, yet interested enough, law firm to handle such a sensitive matter of national importance.

“The team at Cymbell is committed to social justice- the barefoot kind of law; lawyering in public interest,” he told CEO East Africa, adding: “I have worked with one of the partners on issues concerning access to quality education before.”

Rwakakamba’s insights, shed a good amount of light on the question regarding the future of small and mid-sized law firms amidst raging competition driven by globalisation and the attendant need for standardised quality of service wherever clients choose to scale or offshore their businesses.

Uganda has over 800 registered law firms but the bulk of the big-ticket cases, both financially and industry significance are a preserve of about 20 percent of the larger and or older law firms many of whom are now reliant on their global affiliations to keep the deals pipeline buzzing with activity. In such a swimming-with-the-sharks market, what chances do small and or medium-sized indigenous law firms stand?

It is the size of the fight in the law firm and not the size that matters most

To understand this, CEO East Africa Magazine sat down with four lawyer friends and now business partners at Cymbell Advocates to understand the ins and outs of small and medium-sized indigenous law firms, especially the start-ups.

The four lawyers- Matsiko Godwin Muhwezi, Owen Henry, Wanda Samuel Ronald and Arinda Herbert Kainlawren, were until mid-2019 each pursuing flourishing careers.

Godwin (31 years) was a Global Associate Legal Counsel for Fenix International a renewable energy company that is part of the Engie Group, the French multinational electric utility company as well as a part-time law lecturer at the Uganda Christian University. Owen (30 years) was as a Banking & Finance Associate at Shonubi Musoke & Co. Advocates one of Kampala’s largest 10 law firms and before that, the University of Cape Town Master of Laws (Commercial Law) lawyers worked at Mukumbya Musoke & Co. Advocates a firm that specialises in project finance. 

Herbert (35 years) was also building on his 9-year law career at Inter-Aid Uganda a refugee aid non-profit while Ronald Samuel Wanda (30 years), worked as an Associate at Taslaf Advocates & Consultants where he was in charge of the firm’s immigration advisory practice as well as not-for-profit corporate set up and compliance, mergers & acquisitions and conveyance practice.   

The quartet then decided to together form the law firm with Godwin as the Managing Partner; Owen as an Associate, Banking, Finance & Real Estate while Herbert would be a Senior Associate in charge of Dispute Resolution and Wanda an Associate in charge of Corporate Advisory and Immigration.

“Cymbell Advocates launched in Uganda mid-2019. Then, we felt ready to open as a brand after we had understood the market, on-boarded the perfect team and refined our differentiated proposition to existing clients in the region and received individual books of business from our founding team,” narrates Mr. Muhwezi, at the firm’s Ntinda office, in the suburbs of Kampala.

“The decision was informed by our unique experiences in practice. What always stood out for me was a glaring divide in market share between African and global firms in key emerging sub-sectors such as sovereign debt, energy & extractives, big infrastructure financing and social impact models like pay go technology and other vertically integrated businesses in renewable energy, agricultural value addition, supply chain and financial inclusion,” he adds, saying this presented an opportunity for Cymbell.

“Most of these skill sets and the required commercial awareness are not part of the prevailing legal training curricula. In choosing our founding team, we deployed competitive processes to find the right mix of such niche skillsets- each of our team members has advised and or litigated on quality briefs but is also nimble and extremely client-focused,” boasts Muhwezi, with eyes gleaming with optimism.

“We believed and still believe that building a new law firm, driven by making a difference for the client and their business by solving their legal challenges as sustainably and ethically as possible, would give us a competitive edge in the market,” he says.

Owen says he was personally driven by a strong conviction that there will always be room for a “right-sized, agile and nimble law firm” with the right skillset mix.

“There is still a lot of room for medium-sized law firms like ours to focus on providing specialized yet customized services, based on a unique understanding of clients, their businesses including but not limited to matters outside conventional law such as alternative advisory services, technology, finance, conflict resolution, etc,” he says.

“The future of small and medium-sized indigenous law firms lies in positioning themselves as trusted advisors and then leveraging this relationship for the long haul,” he says adding: 

“In Uganda and Africa, there is still a low supply of quality legal services and so there will always be room for a new brand to differentiate itself in the market.”   

The birth of Cymbell Advocates into Kampala’s budding commercial law space

Arinda says that putting all the above insights into perspective, Cymbell Advocates was born.

“Cymbell was founded to become one of Uganda’s most outstanding law firms to represent clients locally and globally in today’s global village,” narrates Herbert who heads Cymbell’s Dispute Resolution practice.

“To hit the ground running, we aligned partners in the region, partners that would be able to offer the same level of rigor and client-centric services in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar el Salaam,” he said adding: “and soon Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.”

“The recent ambitious expansion and affiliations led by big law firms, has pushed us indigenous law firms to up-skill and collaborate on complex briefs and do secondments. From almost day one, we were able to put together a regional team that offers a combined experience of over 100 years from our 50 plus professional advisors in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Kigali. We can leverage this experience and offer a unique experience to our clients wherever their business is located within the region. This regional presence also helps our client get competitive pricing for our services should they require multiple offerings,” he further says of their survival strategy.

The firm offers a full range of offerings by a local and regional pool of all-round advisors in public law, human rights, banking & finance, energy, education, employment and migration law, corporate and commercial law, family law, property law; estate planning and intellectual property law.

However, according to Wanda, much as the above practices are what they would love to be known for in the market, he says that nimbleness requires they keep abreast with everything else to suit themselves with the dynamic needs of the new-age client.

“Whereas a niche area gets one through the door, it helps to be seen as a trusted advisor on a range of issues even if they arise in the client’s private space. The reality is that through the lifecycle of a client, counsel will be called upon to support the business or the client on different legal issues as they arise including latent and aspirational needs,” he explains.   

Thanks to the above outlook, although Cymbell Advocates is barely one year old, the law firm is already fishing in deep waters, taking on some of the big matters in the country.

Cymbell is for example representing Joseph Kabuleta, one of the presidential candidates in a high profile petition against the Electoral Commission’s guidelines in the so-called 2021 General ‘scientific elections’ where candidates will be compelled to campaign on mass media platforms instead of physically. Kabuleta wants the court to quash the guidelines, arguing that it is unfair, and arbitrary, highhanded, illegal irrational, and not sanctioned by any known law of a free and democratic society.

The firm also recently assisted a Kenyan insurance company in a transaction involving an acquisition of an insurance company in Uganda. They were also involved in the corporate restructuring of one of the major financial services providers operating across East Africa, involving an employee ownership scheme and a share trust arrangement. At the centre of the Covid-19 lockdown, Cymbell has also been able to assist a shipping company secure release of consignments trapped in Vietnam over business disputes in Uganda.     

Big law firm or small law firm?

Godwin admits that whereas there are significant benefits, both for clients and lawyers working with large law firms, numerous opportunities still abound from working with and for small to medium firms.

“In many cases, smaller firms may be better positioned to deliver value; cents to the dollar of spend and do offer attractive pricing and better lead times to clients”, he says, adding that, “more needs to be done by regulators in the region to encourage more market share for indigenous firms” as well as supporting and training them “in emerging trends of law so they can start taking a significant chunk of the pie in big transactions.”

“It is the right thing for skills transfer and building a sufficient local capacity,” he says. 

In the face of the raging Covid-19, he says there is probably no better time to do this, than today.

“Covid-19 has impacted all businesses regardless of the sector. In the legal space, it has not only pushed lawyers to revise their business models and cash positions, it has also brought the need to quickly integrate technology and collaboration. Clients have not been spared either, and the recovery of legal services is invariably pegged to the progress of clients’ bouncing back from the current shocks and registries resuming operations at reasonable capacity,” he says.

“It remains difficult for entire economies, much less specific sectors to concretely say what they could have done differently to create buffers against the shocks of the pandemic. However, it is important in the services sector for us to work with clients and offer nuanced support to help them rebuild. This can be through flexibility in processing due receivables, proposing alternative dispute resolution, and deploying technology solutions to ensure business continuity,” he concludes.