Edwin Isaac Manikai

Founding Partner and Head - Commercial, Financial Services & Tax Group

Edwin commenced practice with the law firm of Gill, Godlonton & Gerrans in December 1985. He was a partner at this firm until 31 May 1998 when he co-founded DMH with Dr Canaan Farirai Dube and Selby Vunganai Hwacha.

Edwin has considerable experience in corporate and commercial practice and tax, banking and financial services work and has played a leading role in significant mergers & acquisitions, competition and antitrust law, privatizations, capital raising, project finance, reverse take-overs, IPO's, rights offers and placements, corporate restructurings, telecommunications, power, energy transactions and mining mandates.

Edwin is also the lawyer of choice for the biggest player in trade finance transactions in the country, a multilateral financial institution, for over 20 years, which outlays on average $600 million annually to local banks, mid-size and large corporates, the telecoms sector, mining houses and facilities sponsored by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. With Edwin leading the team, DMH acts for local banks and financial institutions and listed and unlisted corporates as well as State Enterprises.

In recognition of his contribution to the practice of law, Edwin is top ranked and listed in Band 1 as a leading commercial lawyer by Chambers Global, an international publication on the world's leading lawyers. Chambers Global has consistently recognised Edwin as a leading lawyer in Zimbabwe, highlighting his considerable transactional experience and noting his active involvement in sectors including energy and mining. The publication has also commended him as a highly impressive and knowledgeable practitioner, describing him as exceptionally capable and demonstrating a strong depth of legal and transactional expertise.

As head of the firm's Corporate and Financial Services Group, he is recognised as a stand-out lawyer in the market, particularly for his expertise in commercial transactions, tax, energy, and mining. Edwin has experience in several jurisdictions and has done work within the region in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia, as well as in the UK, Europe, USA, China, Hong Kong and Korea.

In 2007, Edwin was appointed to a panel of four experts by the Governor of The Reserve Bank, chaired by retired Judge Smith, which included the corporate governance guru, retired Judge Mervyn King, and former Governor of the Bank of Zambia, David Abel Phiri, which was tasked with reviewing the banking laws in Zimbabwe. The panel submitted its report which has since been implemented.

Edwin is the former chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, which advises the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and British American Tobacco Limited and Chairman of National Foods Holdings Limited, Guruguru Mining and Dadaya Mission Trust (an educational and benevolent Trust).