When every CV is impressive, brand decides: the new battle for Africa’s corporate mandates

And for a long time, this was enough because in the African legal landscape, expertise was the ultimate differentiator. If you had the best legal minds or the most astute deal lawyers, the market beat a path to your door.

But a permanent shift is underway - definitely globally and increasingly so across Africa. Client behaviour is evolving and corporate buyers of legal services are facing unprecedented internal cost pressures, shifting regulatory environments and a mandate to do more with less. In a 2026 survey of more than 500 global general counsel commissioned by Axiom, 90% reported sustained pressure to deliver on cost savings, budget management and external legal spend. As corporate procurement departments become highly sophisticated and institutional loyalty declines, the reality is that expertise is but a baseline commodity.

The firms that will thrive in the next decade on the continent will not be those that simply sell what they know. They will be the ones that understand how to sell who they are. They will win because they built a distinct institutional identity and trust long before the RFP ever lands.

Evolving purchasing habits

To understand why selling pure expertise is a losing strategy, we have to look at how corporate buying habits have evolved. Historically, corporate counsel or financial directors bought services based on personal relationships and legacy reputations. "Nobody ever got fired for hiring a Magic Circle firm" was the prevailing wisdom.

Today, corporate procurement has turned the purchasing of legal services into a highly clinical science. RFPs are structured to strip away emotion, forcing firms to compete on highly standardised matrices of hourly rates, headcount and specific matter experience. When every competing firm submits a pitch deck filled with equally impressive CVs and nearly identical case studies, expertise ceases to be a competitive advantage. It simply becomes the price of admission.

Furthermore, client loyalty continues to decline. Modern corporate buyers are unbundling their mandates. They no longer hand their entire portfolio to a single full-service firm; instead, they cherry-pick specific specialists for specific problems, commoditising standard corporate work and driving down margins. Thomson Reuters’ global law firm brand research has tracked the same shift for several years, finding that clients increasingly prioritise specialist expertise and sector understanding over historical relationships. In Africa, two further forces amplify the shift. Deal confidence is returning - continental M&A activity is expected to hold firm through 2026, with South Africa alone accounting for roughly a third of the continent’s deal value - and the field competing for that work has never been wider. Alongside the established full-service firms, clients can now choose between pan-African networks, specialist boutiques, internationals and challenger firms built from the ground up. More deals and more choice: the buyer’s market in African legal services is structural, not cyclical.

The African lens: The premium on trust

While these dynamics are global, they play out uniquely  across Africa. Navigating business on the continent requires managing high levels of macroeconomic volatility, complex regulatory shifts under the evolving AfCFTA framework and overlapping regional economic communities, and distinct jurisdictional nuances.

In this environment, what clients are actually looking for is a partner who can help them de-risk their future.  This makes it even more important for law firms to proactively have extensive knowledge of their clients’ sectors, regulations and trends.

When an international investor or a pan-African conglomerate is looking to expand into a new regional market, they need a firm whose brand stands for institutional stability, deep local context and, naturally, integrity.

This is where the distinction between expertise and identity becomes critical. Expertise is transactional - it answers the question, "Can you do the job?" Identity is relational - it answers the question, "Who are you when things go wrong, and can I trust your judgment in the grey areas?"

Yet investment in brand across African firms remains uneven. A cohort of leading firms has already demonstrated what deliberate brand strategy delivers in market position and pricing power - but in much of the market, brand is still resourced as a cost centre rather than a growth lever.

Leveraging brand as a tool 

If you are waiting for an RFP to land on your desk to start selling your firm, you are already too late. By the time a corporate procurement team drafts a formal tender, they have usually already formed a subconscious mental shortlist of who they believe can solve their problem.

Firms that successfully sell identity occupy what marketers call "mental availability". They consistently communicate a clear point of view on market trends, macroeconomic shifts and industry challenges. They demonstrate forward-looking thought leadership.

When a firm establishes a strong institutional identity, it achieves three strategic advantages. The first is pricing power: clients pay a premium for firms they trust to exercise judgment under pressure, and are less inclined to force them into commoditised rate comparisons. The second is talent magnetism: the strongest professionals on the continent want to build their careers at firms whose identity they are proud to carry. The third is institutional longevity: a firm whose brand transcends individual rainmakers endures partner departures and generational transitions.

The leadership mandate

The challenge for leadership teams across African law firms is to stop treating brand strategy as a secondary corporate support function or a cosmetic exercise in updating logos and website copy. Brand strategy is business development strategy.

We must challenge our partners to articulate what our firms stand for beyond our technical capabilities. What is our unique perspective on the growth of the continent? How do our values manifest in the way we manage client relationships through difficult economic cycles?

The African continent is brimming with immense economic potential and unlocking it requires sophisticated, courageous advisory. The firms that will lead this charge are those that realise technical excellence is no longer a differentiator but a given - the enduring power of our identity is what will matter going forward.