Prime Law LLP was built on a simple idea: that the lawyers who helped shape Ethiopia's regulatory framework are the ones best placed to help you navigate it. What follows is who we are, how we work, and the institutions and clients we've served.
Who We Are
Prime Law LLP is a registered limited liability partnership based in Addis Ababa, serving clients across Ethiopia and East Africa. We combine the depth and authority of a specialist regulatory practice with the responsiveness and direct partner access of a boutique. When you work with Prime Law, you work with the partners themselves.
We are known for the sectors where regulation is most complex and the stakes are highest — life sciences and healthcare, public institutions and donor-funded organizations, financial services, and data and technology — and we bring that same rigor to corporate, commercial, and investment work across the economy. In these fields, getting the law right is not a formality. It determines whether a product reaches the market, whether a project secures funding, whether a transaction closes cleanly, and whether an organization operates with confidence or exposure
What Makes Us Different
We know the rules from the inside. Our partners have advanced training in the field, have drafted regulations, advised regulators, and helped build institutional frameworks that shape Ethiopia’s regulated industries. We understand not only what the law says, but why it was written that way and how it is applied in practice.
We are trusted by institutions that set the standard. That track record gives our clients confidence that their matters are in capable, credible hands.
We are specialists at our core, full-service in practice. We are known for the depth of our regulatory and life sciences expertise — but we serve businesses across the economy with corporate, commercial, investment, and dispute resolution counsel. Our specialist foundation is what makes our advice across all these areas sharper, faster, and more commercially useful than a generalist's.
We are local with regional reach. Prime Law is grounded in Ethiopian law and Ethiopian institutions, with the capability and networks to support clients on cross-border and East African matters.
Our Approach
We believe good legal advice is clear, practical, and commercially aware. Our clients are decision-makers — executives, investors, programme directors, and public officials — who need counsel they can act on, not memoranda they need a lawyer to interpret. We explain the law in plain terms, identify the real risks, and recommend a path forward.
We also believe that trust is earned through judgment, discretion, and results. Whether we are securing a marketing authorization, structuring an investment, advising on a sensitive investigation, or shaping a piece of policy, we hold ourselves to the standard our clients and the institutions we serve expect.
Credentials
Registered limited liability partnership — with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Justice.
Founding partners: US- and Ethiopia-trained, with advanced degrees in health laws, business and investment laws.
Authors and drafters of EFDA regulations and public health legislation, with team experience extending to Ethiopia's Commercial Code.
Experience & Clients
Prime Law's partners bring nearly two decades of advisory, legislative, and regulatory work across Ethiopia's public, multilateral, and private sectors. Our engagements include direct advisory work and assignments delivered through implementing partners.
Multilateral institutions & global funders We have advised and worked with the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — on assignments spanning regulatory assessment, health-sector governance, legislative feasibility, and institutional reform.
Government & regulatory institutions Our partners have served the Ethiopian Food & Drug Authority (EFDA), the Federal Ministry of Health, the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSS), and the Ministry of Water — contributing to legislative drafting, regulatory decentralization, and institutional strengthening.
Development & technical partners We have delivered assignments with leading global health and development organizations, including FHI 360 Alive & Thrive, Save the Children International, John Snow, Inc. (JSI), Vital Strategies, Results for Development (R4D), Tulane University, and Pamela Steel Associates.
Life sciences & private sector Our partners serve as legal advisor to the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association (EPA), reflecting the firm's depth across the life-sciences sector. Our corporate and commercial practice serves pharmaceutical importers, distributors, and manufacturers, banks, and consumer-goods companies operating in Ethiopia.
Across all engagements, clients work directly with the partners — including the partners who helped shape the regulatory framework they now navigate.
The People Behind Prime Law
Prime Law was founded by partners with senior experience in regulatory practice, public health and life sciences law, public policy, and commercial litigation & advisory. We are a deliberately small, senior team — the people who advise you are the people who do the work.