From its new New York office, the law firm Support Legal hopes to convince mining companies active in Africa to seek its services by displaying its team made up mainly of former employees of Glencore-Xstrata, Herbert Smith Freehills and DLA Piper, and by communicating especially on his low fees.

While it brandishes names such as West Africa's gold leader Endeavor Mining and the promoter of the giant Mozambican graphite deposit Syrah Resources among its clients, the law firm Support Legal aims to attract multiple other profiles of actors in the mining sector on the continent.

So that juniors with less resources and local subcontractors can also approach the firm, the latter claims to charge reduced prices by fixing the fees upstream as well as by dematerializing and automating certain services. The firm's lawyers can also join a client's teams for a given period in order to support its in-house lawyers. Support Legal already works for the British Emmerson, which explores Khemisset potash in Morocco, as well as for Elemental Royalties, a Canadian company that finances itself by acquiring mining royalties, and the Australian driller SBD Group, in its activities in Mauritania.

Beyond the price, Support Legal hopes to convince with the CVs of its associates. Peter Finan, who heads the "mining industry" division and the last office opened by the firm last September, that of New York, worked for a long time for the firm DLA Piper and then supported the Guinean government on the Simandou iron project ( Africa Intelligence of 11/10/16). The founder, domiciled in Dubai, of Support Legal, Lee McMahon, is meanwhile a former Herbert Smith Freehills having also been a lawyer within the trader and mining company Glencore-Xstrata, like Roger Nasser, Legal Director of the firm. based in Sydney. In the Australian mining hub that is Perth is Marc Montandon, a former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer who also worked for Sundance Resources, owner of the Mbalam iron project in Congo. On the African continent, while Sheriff Touray, Legal Director of Legal Support and former General Electric, is based in Ghana, the firm is also a partner of local firms specializing in mining in key countries for the sector on the continent: Proxima Serge Nawej in the DRC (Africa Intelligence, 08/10/13) and Nupen Staude de Vires in South Africa.