Jean Meijer, Head of Competition at pan-African corporate law firm Bowman Gilfillan, has announced that, with effect from 1 April 2013, Derek Lotter will join her as co-head of the competition practice area.

Ms Meijer commented: “With the introduction of competition laws in many African countries and the coming into operation of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission, our practice is increasingly expanding into Africa.

“The importance of this expansion to the firm and our clients, and the substantially increased management responsibilities associated with growth, have lead to the decision to share these responsibilities.

“Between us, we have experience in all aspects of South African competition law and extensive knowledge of competition laws across the continent, which creates an excellent base for our expansion plans. I am looking forward to working with Derek to take our practice area to the next level.”

The Bowman Gilfillan Competition practice is consistently ranked in the top tier. Chambers and Partners Global 2013 recently ranked the Competition practice in Band 1, stating that the team "... is well known for its deep bench of talented experts."

Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group provides top end, integrated legal advice to businesses, financial institutions and governments operating throughout Africa.

The Group has 350 lawyers in offices in Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Kampala and Nairobi. Udo Udoma & Bela-Osagie, the Group’s relationship law firm in Nigeria, has offices in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Strong relationships with law firms across the rest of Africa enable the Group to provide or source the advice clients require in any African country, whether on a single country or a multi-jurisdictional basis.