Two weeks after Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced the opening of an affiliated office in the Ivory Coast, the local bar association accused the San Francisco-based firm of misrepresenting two of its lawyers.
Orrick’s Karamoko Fadiga and Sydney Domoraud-Operi are licensed to practice by the country’s Ministry of Justice as “conseil juridique,” which means they cannot appear in court proceedings. However, when the firm issued a French translation of its statement announcing the launch of Orrick RCI in the capital city of Abidjan, the two attorneys were wrongly described as “avocats,” who are governed by the local bar association and can offer legal advice on all matters and plead and defend civil and criminal cases before the Ivorian courts to which they are admitted.
