Bowmans Competition Partners Joyce Karanja-Ng’ang’a and Claire Reidy have been included in Global Competition Review's Women in Antitrust 2016 Report.

According to GCR, the Women in Antitrust Report recognises,"nearly 100 remarkable women at the helm of law firms' competition practices around the world. Some have attained global recognition for their work, while others have achieved excellence and antitrust fame in their respective countries.”

The 2016 edition featured several women breaking ground in jurisdictions newer to antitrust laws – including Joyce Karanja-Ng’ang’a. Karanja-Ng’ang’a is a partner and the head of Competition at Bowmans in Kenya. Her primary focus has been in mergers and acquisitions and competition law. In addition to merger control, Karanja-Ng’ang’a specialises in advising on market investigations, a recent trend in Kenya as the Competition Authority begins to flex its muscles. She has advised on restrictive practices, market dominance and public interest conditions in merger transactions in Kenya and other parts of Africa. She regularly appears before the local authority, the Competition Authority of Kenya and has regular dealings with the regional authority, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Notes Karanja-Ng’ang’a, “I started out my legal career as a general corporate and commercial practitioner, focusing on mergers and acquisitions. At that time, competition law in Kenya was not very developed; except for merger control the rest of the competition law provisions were not fully enforced. My first encounter with competition law was really in the merger control space, in the context of my M&A practice. However, in 2011 Kenya enacted a new competition law, which established a new Competition Authority with a renewed appetite to enforce competition law in Kenya. With that, my competition law practice was born and has now developed into a dedicated competition law team at Bowmans in Nairobi.

“What has kept me going is my interest and passion for the subject. It's great to be able to contribute to the development of Kenyan competition law while it is still in its infancy,” she says.

Competition partner Claire Reidy advises on the full spectrum of issues that arise in the competition law sector, including merger control, investigations and litigation relating to cartels and other prohibited practices, compliance audits and training programmes.

Having practiced general commercial litigation since the inception of her legal career, Reidy has a strong litigation background, which she says is extremely beneficial in an increasingly litigious anti-trust enforcement environment.

Reidy notes, "I have been lucky enough to be part of ground-breaking anti-trust transactions that position our country and its legal transactions on a global stage. As such, it is gratifying that this work has been recognised by this nomination."

Reidy says she enjoys the diversity that antitrust law has to offer.

"The work I am involved in is multi-faceted and ranges from litigation, opinion work, compliance audits and training to merger control. The matters I work on span different industries and countries in Africa.

"We are practising in exciting times, as antitrust legislation is increasingly introduced and implemented across Africa. Our work is no longer one-dimensional and, as South African practitioners, we are geographically and strategically placed to be on the forefront of developments in antitrust law in many developing African countries. In addition, our cultural similarities afford us a privileged place in the African legal environment," she notes.

Bowmans Chairman Robert Legh adds, “It is significant that two of the world’s top women in competition law are partners at our firm. Joyce and Claire are successful competition lawyers, advising clients in multiple jurisdictions across Africa. Their achievement is further testament to the fact that we are achieving our vision of being the leading Pan-African law firm for corporate and institutional clients, working on their most complex legal matters on the continent."