Work Experience :

Tapiwa John obtained his LLB (Honours) from Midlands State University. In addition to being a registered legal practitioner of the High Court of Zimbabwe, Tapiwa is also duly registered as a Conveyancer and Notary Public.

He initially joined the firm as an intern in 2018, and after graduating from law school was offered the position of Associate. His keen areas of practice include Commercial and Corporate Law, Employment Law and General Civil Litigation. Tapiwa also has a keen interest in Constitutional and Administrative Law, International Trade and Economic Law and he hopes to carve out a niche for himself in legal aspects surrounding International Business Transactions.

Practice Area:

Corporate and Commercial Law – Employment and Labour Law – Dispute Resolution and Arbitration – Environmental Law

Work Experience :

George is the head of the Labour law, Dispute Resolution and Litigation departments. A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe, George joined the firm in 2000. He has successfully litigated in the High Court and Supreme Court of Zimbabwe on commercial matters representing some of the biggest corporations in the country. He has handled several commercial arbitrations. Over the past few years, he has among other things, handled multimillion dollar claims against commercial banks arising from expropriation of funds by the central bank, he was part of a team advising a client on acquisition of a bank, and developed model contracts for a multi‐million dollar contract farming scheme.

George has a special interest in Environmental law and he is a co‐founder of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association [ZELA], a public interest organization promoting environmental justice in Zimbabwe. He holds a diploma in International Environmental Law from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). He has been involved in litigation over water pollution by some mining companies in Zimbabwe and resisting illegal developments over wetlands in peri‐urban Harare. He has conducted environmental compliance audits for several industrial and mining companies in the country. George sits on the board of a micro finance institution in Zimbabwe and several other non‐governmental organisations.

Practice Area:

Corporate and Commercial Law – Conveyancing and Property Law – Estate Planning and Administration 

Work Experience:

Thakor was admitted as a Barrister at Law of the Inner Temple, London, United Kingdom, and also by the High Court of Zimbabwe. He has been practicing as a lawyer in Zimbabwe for 38 years and headed the firm’s Intellectual Property division for many years. Thakor has acted for a number of prominent local and international clients over the years, among them the principal parties involved in the financing and construction of national projects such as the rail and road bridge over the Limpopo river at Beitbridge, Beitbridge‐Bulawayo railway line, the new Harare International Airport, the third Mobile Cellular telephone network in Zimbabwe and he recently conducted a landmark inquest of national importance. He too is a Consulting Partner having reached the firm’s retirement age.

Thakor continues to deal with all areas of corporate and commercial law, trusts and investments, estate planning, joint ventures, mergers, due diligence investigations and all forms of corporate and commercial matters.

Practice Area:

Employment & Labour Law – Constitutional & Administrative Law – Corporate & Commercial Law

Work Experience:

Rudo graduated from the University of Zimbabwe in 2010 with a University Book Prize and the Law Society of Zimbabwe Book Prize for her outstanding academic achievements. In June 2012, she was awarded the Cambridge-Commonwealth Shared Scholarship to read for a Master in Law with the University of Cambridge (UK) where she specialized in international law. She is a human rights expert having worked in this field since 2008. She worked for the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum between 2008-2012. In June 2012, she was awarded the Cambridge-Commonwealth Shared Scholarship to read for a Master in Law with the University of Cambridge (UK) where she specialized in international law. In 2014, Rudo joined Scanlen & Holderness as an Associate. And was admitted to partnership in January 2019. She possesses extensive experience in the following relevant areas:

• Extensive experience in constitutional and human rights litigation
• Legal Analysis of Prisons Act-Zimbabwe and drafting model Prisons Bill
• Legal research on bill of rights introduced by the constitution in 2013
• Position papers on alignment of the 2013 constitution with national laws
• Paper on the justiciability on ESC Rights in Zimbabwe
• Drafting an anti-torture Bill for Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum to be presented in Parliament as a Private Member Bill
• Drafting constitutions for private organisations
• Analysis of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Act
• Analysis on the gaps in law and practices relating to pre-election environment in Southern Africa
• Extensive experience in local and international advocacy including ACP-EU, UPR, SADC and African Commission.

Work Experience:

Fidelis joined Scanlen from South Africa where he graduated with an LLB degree, with a Distinction, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He went on to study for a Masters in Corporate and Commercial Law, at the same institution, majoring in Company Law, Banking & Finance and Advanced Contract Law. Fidelis believes Corporate and Commercial Law is vital and essential for the creation of sustainable institutions in the Country and the world at large. He aspires to make meaningful contributions to the commercial landscape in the country.

Practice Area:

Corporate and Commercial Law – Mining and Energy Law – Constitutional and Administrative Law

Work Experience :

Sternford is the Senior Partner and Chairman of the firm which he joined in 1981. He provides overall leadership in addition to taking special responsibility for Mining, Commercial and Corporate law. He coordinates all activities in the firm and looks after unallocated functions such as responsibility for non‐professional staff. His practice is mostly mining, commercial and corporate law related.

He has advised financial institutions and loan underwriters in most of the large infrastructure projects that have taken place in post independent Zimbabwe in areas such as forestry, energy, water supply and telecommunications. Sternford has provided advice on navigating Zimbabwe’s empowerment laws and has been actively involved in most of the empowerment transactions which have been publicised so far. He is a former President of both the Law Society of Zimbabwe and the Southern African Development Community Lawyers’ Association, Co‐ Chairperson of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, Former chairman of Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe Limited ‐ a leading commercial bank in Zimbabwe which is a member of the Standard Bank group, Chairman of Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited, Former Chairman of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and Director of Alpha Media Holdings Limited, one of the largest and most diversified media companies and PPC Zimbabwe Limited, the largest cement company in Zimbabwe. He is one of the leading corporate and commercial lawyers in Southern Africa. During the early part of his career, he taught corporate, commercial and constitutional law. He successfully completed the Media Law Advocates training program run by the University of Oxford. He graduated with distinction and was named by Butterworths as one of the most outstanding postgraduate law students in 1981.

Practice Area:

Corporate and Commercial Law – Employment and Labour Law – General Civil Practise

Work Experience :

Archford Rutanhira is a Partner with over 15 years experience. He specializes in civil litigation in the superior courts of Zimbabwe focusing mainly on labour, commercial, contract, banking and corporate matters.

Archford also has in depth experience in employment contract drafting, employment disciplinary hearings and drafting employment codes of conduct. He has gained extensive experience and carved a niche in handling collective bargaining agreements, collective job actions something which he has done for some of the largest corporations in the country especially in the sugar production and milling, pharmaceutical and laboratory and the mining industries.

Furthermore, he has negotiated and drafted agreements in the telecoms industry, and for large scale farming joint ventures in Zimbabwe and also has experience in the registration of Trusts.

He is a board member and country representative of the International Fund For Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (the Zimbabwean chapter of the United States of America based International Fund For Animal Welfare) as well as the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe.

Work Experience:

Marshia obtained her BA (Law) and LLB from Rhodes University, South Africa. Her practice experience covers a variety of corporate transactions and litigation. However, her areas of interest are corporate and commercial law, tax law and mining law. Having joined the firm in February 2018 as an intern, she has developed a keen interest in corporate and commercial law, tax law, mining law and intellectual property law. During her spare time, Marshia enjoys a good game of tennis, travelling and embarking on adrenaline filled adventures.