BonelliErede is present in Ethiopia since 2016 and, effective as of 27 July 2017, cooperates with the Ethiopian law firm Tameru Wondm Agegnehu Law Office which is an integral part of the BonelliErede network.
Tameru Wondm Agegnehu Law Office in cooperation with BonelliErede offers a complete range of legal services to international investors and major local corporations, including contracts law, investment, corporate, commercial, construction, energy, employment, intellectual property including patent, trademark and copyright law, and international arbitration and litigation.
Tameru Wondm Agegnehu is the founder of Tameru Wondm Agegnehu Law Office and Of Counsel BonelliErede. He has been practicing as a lawyer in Ethiopia since 1992, served as judge for 19 years and as Vice President of the Supreme Court in Ethiopia between 1988 and 1991. He has an extensive experience in corporate and commercial law and civil law with appearance in litigation involving corporate law as well as major criminal cases, at the High & Supreme Courts level. Ato Tameru served also as Chairman of the Board of Habasha Cement S.C., as deputy chair personof the Board of Zemen Bank and as President of the Ethiopian Bar Association. He is recognized by Chambers Global as leading lawyer in the country, he is Member of the IBA African Regional Forum’s Advisory Board and he is an institution in the local legal community.
The office works “in cooperation with BonelliErede” and in full synergy with our offices in Europe, especially for specialistic advise and cross-national practices, and with the other offices in North Africa and Middle East (Egypt, UAE).
Our team is composed of an integrated group of 10 lawyers led by Tameru Wondm Agegnehu and Gianpiero Succi, Partner at BonelliErede, in charge of the development of our practice in East Africa and in the other Sub-Saharan African. They are supported by other lawyers of different seniority, including Weynalem Weldesenbet and Seble Geberegiorgis Baraki, Local Partners, Daniele Gambirasio, Partner, the associates Michele Saponaro, Abay Mekonnen and Robel Mehari and the trainees Samrawit Behailu and Tsedey Girma.
Weynalem Weldesenbet, has senior experience in advising clients on complex local law issues. He regularly assists local and international companies in Ethiopia, and he has a great expertise in litigation and arbitration as well as intellectual property. In addition, he is also a certified trademark agent in Ethiopia. Seble Geberegiorgis Baraki, has a great expertise in intellectual property and she is also a certified trademark agent in Ethiopia. She has an ample experience in litigation matters as well as in assisting local and international companies in corporate and commercial law. Abay Mekonnen is a litigator, with expertise in dissolution and liquidation, contract law, product liability, insurance law, IP law, employment and tax law, and financial crimes. Robel Mehari, has experience in local and international taxation and was seconded to BonelliErede’s Milan office in 2020. Samrawit and Tsedey are two trainees with experience in corporate law, employment law and litigation.
Daniele Gambirasio and Michele Saponaro together with Gianpiero Succi are the Italian members of the team. Daniele Gambirasio, a corporate Partner, was seconded in 2016 and he has been in Addis Ababa since October 2019. He has a great experience in international corporate law with a particular expertise on extraordinary transaction, private and public M&A and joint ventures. Michele Saponaro is a litigation law associate who was seconded to Addis Ababa in 2018, greatly contributing to our development in the country, with expertise in civil law, business law and company law.
As part of the BonelliErede network the Addis Ababa office collaborate in total synergy with the other firm’s offices in Italy, Europe and the Middle East. Depending on the needs of a matter, we integrate the competences of the local professionals with all the BonelliErede experts from our teams based in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.