Charles Whitfield
Founder · Corporate
Whitfield is a boutique Nairobi practice advising founders, family enterprises and listed companies on the legal questions that shape a decade — not a quarter. We accept fewer matters, by design, and stay close to each of them.
Most of our work begins long before a contract is drafted or a dispute is filed. Founders ask us about their first principal investor. Boards ask us about a regulatory letter they have not yet received. Families ask us about a succession not yet announced. We are not the firm of the eleventh hour; we are the one called early, and only then.
Founder counsel, growth-stage financings, shareholder arrangements, board advisory. We draft what we'd want to read in five years.
Lead counsel on cross-border strategic transactions across East Africa. CAK clearance, COMESA notifications, integration architecture.
Syndicated lending, mezzanine structures, fund formation under the CMA regime. Counsel to both sides of the table — though never in the same matter.
Executive compensation, restrictive covenants, ELRC matters. Quiet exits. The work that protects a balance sheet and a reputation at the same time.
Multi-generational planning for principal families. Trustees. Foundations. A practice built on discretion as policy, not posture.
Commercial litigation, international arbitration (LCIA / ICC / NCIA), regulatory inquiries. We prefer the conference room. We are ready for the courtroom.
"They have a way of telling you the thing you didn't want to hear, in a way that makes you grateful for it."
The decision's downstream effect on NSE-listed issuers, and the disclosure posture we are advising clients to adopt this quarter.
What eighteen months of contested deals tell us about special-committee strategy and fairness-opinion sequencing.
A working framework for principal families thinking past the second generation, across three jurisdictions.
We will respond within one business day, after a conflicts check. All correspondence is held in confidence.
Selectively. We accept matters where our involvement is likely to determine the outcome, and where the engagement fits within our existing book. A conflicts check precedes every conversation.
Long-form retainers, fixed-scope engagements, and success-aligned fees. Hourly billing remains available but is rarely the structure clients choose.
Initial enquiries are held in confidence but do not on their own create an advocate–client relationship. After a conflicts check, we move to a privileged intake call before substantive discussion.
For multi-jurisdictional work across the EAC, we coordinate with correspondent firms in Kampala, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, and London. Lead counsel remains with us.