Nairobi · Mombasa · Kisumu · Kigali
Harrington & Whitlock Advocates
A Century of Closed Deals & Quiet Counsel

The firm boardrooms
call before the press does.

Harrington & Whitlock advises listed companies, family enterprises, sovereign ministries, and regional banks on the matters that decide their decade — mergers, succession, regulatory inquiry, the quiet litigation that never reaches a cause list. Discretion is the work; outcomes are the proof.

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Chambers Global · Band 1, Corporate & M&A Kenya — Twelve Consecutive Years◆ Legal 500 EMEA · Hall of Fame, Dispute Resolution◆ IFLR1000 · Tier 1, Banking & Finance · 2025◆ ALB Africa Awards · Kenya Law Firm of the Year◆ Financial Times · Innovative Lawyers, Africa◆ Chambers Global · Band 1, Corporate & M&A Kenya — Twelve Consecutive Years◆ Legal 500 EMEA · Hall of Fame, Dispute Resolution◆ IFLR1000 · Tier 1, Banking & Finance · 2025◆ ALB Africa Awards · Kenya Law Firm of the Year◆ Financial Times · Innovative Lawyers, Africa◆
Section I · Practice

Eight disciplines.
One standard of work.

Our partners practice at the intersection of capital, regulation, and reputation. We accept matters where outcome matters more than billings — and we structure our engagements accordingly.

142
Partners across East Africa
28
Former High Court researchers
9
Jurisdictions of admission
0
Listed client losses, 2024
  1. i

    Mergers & Acquisitions

    Cross-border strategic transactions, contested take-privates, and joint ventures across East Africa. Lead counsel on 96 announced deals since 2020.

    Chair
    E. Whitlock
  2. ii

    Capital Markets & Securities

    NSE listings, rights issues, Eurobond structures, and CMA enforcement defense for issuers and arrangers.

    Chair
    M. Ashbury
  3. iii

    Investigations & Regulatory

    Internal investigations, EACC and DCI matters, and parallel proceedings. A practice that prefers the boardroom to the courtroom.

    Chair
    D. Harrington III
  4. iv

    Private Wealth & Family Enterprise

    Multi-generational planning for principal families. Trustee disputes. Succession across jurisdictions. Discretion as policy, not posture.

    Chair
    P. Lancaster
  5. v

    Competition & Antitrust

    CAK merger clearance and COMESA notifications. Tactical defense of conduct investigations across the region.

    Chair
    J. Pemberton
  6. vi

    Energy, Infrastructure & Project Finance

    Counsel on geothermal, grid-scale solar, LNG and concessional infrastructure across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

    Chair
    L. Sterling
  7. vii

    Tax & Structuring

    KRA disputes, transfer pricing, and cross-border tax counsel. We design the deal that survives the audit.

    Chair
    C. Caldwell
  8. viii

    Constitutional & Appellate

    Counsel of record in 17 Supreme Court of Kenya matters since 2010. A practice built on the long argument.

    Chair
    A. Whitfield
Section II · Doctrine
"The best counsel is the one that prevents the call from ever being made."
— J. Harrington, Sr., 1972

A practice built for the long table.

When the firm was founded above a stone-fronted bank on Kenyatta Avenue, the work was already unfashionable: long retainers, fewer files, partners who knew their clients' children by name. We have grown — four offices, three jurisdictions — but the cadence is the same. We accept fewer engagements than we are offered, decline the matters we cannot win quietly, and structure fees against outcomes our clients can measure on a balance sheet rather than a clock.

The result is unfashionable too: clients who stay for thirty years, partners who retire here, and a roster of matters that move markets without making them.

Section III · Counsel

The partners who sign the work.

Every Harrington & Whitlock matter is led by a named partner. We do not pyramid; we apprentice. Our associates train under one partner for their first four years.

01 — Managing Partner
b. 1968

Eleanor Whitlock

Mergers & Acquisitions · Nairobi

Lead counsel on the East African Power / Cordell consolidation (2023, KES 142B). Former research counsel, Court of Appeal. Strathmore Law '96; Cambridge LL.M '99.

View biography →
02 — Senior Partner
b. 1961

Douglas Harrington III

Investigations & Regulatory · Nairobi

Former Senior Assistant Director, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Has resolved 28 EACC and DCI matters without charge since 2012.

View biography →
03 — Partner
b. 1975

Priscilla Lancaster

Private Wealth · Nairobi & Mombasa

Advises eleven principal families across four jurisdictions. STEP Worldwide Fellow. Trustee, Nairobi National Museum Society.

View biography →
04 — Partner
b. 1971

Margaret Ashbury

Capital Markets · Nairobi

Issuer's counsel on 18 NSE listings in the past decade, including two of the five largest East African Eurobond offerings of 2022.

View biography →
05 — Partner
b. 1969

Adrian Whitfield

Constitutional & Appellate · Nairobi

Argued seven cases before the Supreme Court of Kenya. Former research counsel to the Hon. Justice Sandra Linton, Court of Appeal.

View biography →
— View all counsel

142 partners across four offices.

Browse the full roster by practice, geography, or admission. Filter by Mansfield-tracked promotions, languages of practice, and recent matters.

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Section IV · Selected Matters

The record. Redacted only where it must be.

A selection of matters from the past 36 months. Many of our most consequential engagements never appear in any list — by design, and at the client's instruction.

KES 142B

Counsel to East African Power in cross-border consolidation with Cordell Holdings

Lead M&A, CAK and COMESA clearance, financing structure across KES 41B of acquisition debt.

M&A · 2023
No charge

Parallel EACC & CMA inquiries — listed industrial issuer

22-month investigation concluded without enforcement action; concurrent shareholder petition resolved on preliminary objection.

Investigations · 2024
6–1

Howell v. Attorney-General — preserved inter-county commerce doctrine

Argued before the Supreme Court of Kenya; majority adopted petitioner's framing in full.

Appellate · 2024
KES 26B

Take-private of Mombasa-based logistics operator

Counsel to special committee. Negotiated 38% premium against initial sponsor bid; no go-shop period required.

M&A · 2024
Five gens.

Succession architecture — East African industrial family

Restructured ownership across five generations and three jurisdictions; resolved trustee dispute without filing.

Private Wealth · 2025

"They are the firm you call when calling the firm has to itself be a discreet act."

— General Counsel, NSE-Listed Conglomerate

Section V · Thinking

Quarterly notes from counsel.

Our partners write — sparingly, and only when there is something specific to say. Subscribe to The Whitlock Letter, sent four times a year.

MemorandumQ1 · 2025

After Petition 18 of 2024: The Quiet Recalibration of Regulatory Deference

The decision's downstream effect on rulemaking in financial services and energy — and the new disclosure posture NSE issuers should adopt this quarter.

A. Whitfield · M. Ashbury Read note →
MemorandumQ4 · 2024

The Strategic Take-Private at Slim Premiums

What the past 18 months of contested deals tell us about special-committee strategy, fairness opinion sequencing, and the new role of activist exit pressure.

E. Whitlock Read note →
MemorandumQ3 · 2024

Parallel Proceedings: Sequencing the Internal Investigation

How to scope, time, and (where necessary) selectively disclose internal investigations when civil litigation precedes EACC or DCI inquiry.

D. Harrington III Read note →
MemorandumQ2 · 2024

Sovereign Concession Architecture in a Higher-Rate Era

A field note on the renegotiation of long-dated infrastructure concessions across Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

L. Sterling · C. Caldwell Read note →
Section VI · Engagement

Tell us, in confidence, what you need.

All inquiries are reviewed by a member of our intake committee within one business day. We will respond only after confirming there is no conflict of interest with our existing clients.

Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship.