Areas of Practice
Prime Law concentrates on seven core areas where our expertise is deepest and our clients' needs are greatest. Each is led directly by our partners and senior attorneys, supported by a trusted network of specialist counsel we draw on as each engagement requires. The result is full-service capability with the focus, seniority, and direct partner access that make our advice valuable.
Regulatory & Life Sciences
The regulations governing Ethiopia's pharmaceutical, medical device, food, and biotechnology sectors are complex, evolving, and rigorously enforced. We advise clients at every stage — product registration and marketing authorization strategy, import and distribution licensing, good manufacturing and distribution practice (GMP/GDP) compliance, labeling and advertising rules, and inspection readiness. Because our partners helped shape the framework these rules are built on, we navigate it with unusual fluency.
Who we help: Pharmaceutical manufacturers and importers, medical device and diagnostics companies, food and beverage businesses, biotech firms, and the investors backing them.
Corporate & Commercial Law
Full-service corporate and commercial counsel for businesses operating in Ethiopia — from company formation, joint ventures, and market entry to mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, tax structuring, and investment transactions. We serve clients across the economy, and we bring something most corporate practices cannot: deep regulatory fluency. For businesses in regulated and life sciences sectors, that means corporate advice delivered with full awareness of the licensing, compliance, and sector-specific rules that shape every transaction — not handed off and reassembled afterward.
Who we help: Domestic and foreign companies establishing or expanding in Ethiopia, investors conducting due diligence and structuring transactions, businesses negotiating partnerships, distribution, and supply arrangements, and life sciences and regulated-industry clients who need corporate counsel that understands their regulatory environment.
Public Policy & Advocacy
We advise governments, regulators, donors, and civil society organizations on the design and reform of law and policy. Our work spans legislative drafting and regulatory impact analysis, institutional governance and strengthening, evidence-based advocacy strategy, and the full legal needs of donor-funded organizations operating in Ethiopia. Trusted by the World Bank, IFC, and five UN agencies, we bring both technical legal skill and a sophisticated understanding of how policy is made and implemented.
NGO & Donor-Funded Sector — an integrated service
Non-profit and donor-funded organizations face a distinctive web of legal requirements, and most firms treat them as occasional clients. We treat them as a priority. We offer a single, joined-up service covering registration and renewal under the CSO Proclamation, governance and compliance frameworks, donor compliance manuals, employment and consultant arrangements, grant and sub-grant structuring, internal investigations, and project closure. Prime Law is the firm that understands both donor compliance frameworks and Ethiopian regulatory reality.
Who we help: Government ministries and regulatory agencies, international financial institutions and UN agencies, INGOs and local CSOs, sector associations, and donor-funded programmes.
Litigation & Arbitration
When disputes arise, our clients need advisers who can move from the negotiating table to the courtroom to the arbitral tribunal without missing a step. Our partners bring active commercial litigation experience — including cross-border matters — alongside arbitration and internal investigations capability. We handle commercial and contract disputes, regulatory and administrative challenges, domestic and international arbitration, and sensitive internal investigations for corporate and donor-funded clients. We are equally comfortable resolving a matter quietly and pursuing it to judgment when that is what the situation demands.
Who we help: Companies and financial institutions facing commercial disputes, organizations requiring internal or donor-mandated investigations, and clients with arbitration or cross-border enforcement needs.
Data, Privacy & Digital
Ethiopia's Personal Data Protection Proclamation (No. 1321/2024) introduced significant new obligations, and most organizations are not yet compliant. We help clients build practical, defensible data protection programmes — gap assessments, policies and notices, data processing agreements, breach response procedures, and ongoing compliance support. Our fixed-fee compliance packages make it straightforward for organizations of any size to get compliant quickly and stay that way.
Who we help: Companies handling personal data, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences organizations, NGOs, and technology and digital businesses.
Immigration, Global Mobility & Employment
Multinational companies entering or operating in Ethiopia need to move people as well as capital — and to manage their workforce once they arrive. We handle the full range of corporate immigration, global mobility, and employment work: work permits, residency and visa matters, the mobility needs of expatriate staff and their dependents, and the employment arrangements, executive contracts, and workforce compliance that accompany them. Our team brings international-standard immigration experience, including work for multinational corporations through the world's leading global immigration networks. This practice pairs naturally with our corporate and market-entry work: we can establish your entity, move your people, and structure their employment under one roof.
Who we help: Multinational corporations, foreign investors and their expatriate staff, companies establishing operations in Ethiopia, and organizations managing cross-border workforce mobility and employment.
Banking, Financial Services & Capital Markets
Ethiopia's financial sector is opening and modernizing, from a maturing banking system to the launch of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange. We advise banks, financial institutions, and businesses on the legal and regulatory questions this new landscape presents — National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) compliance and licensing, financial institution advisory, and capital markets and securities matters including listing readiness and corporate governance for the Ethiopian Securities Exchange. We combine regulatory fluency with commercial pragmatism to help clients operate and raise capital with confidence.
Who we help: Banks and financial institutions, companies preparing to list or raise capital, investors in the financial sector, and businesses navigating NBE regulation.
Get in Touch
Not sure which area fits your need? Tell us what you're working on and we'll point you to the right starting place. Get in Touch