Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Brigette is a partner in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group. Based in Johannesburg, Brigette focuses on project development and financing aspects of projects across Africa, having worked in jurisdictions such as Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho. Brigette also works with clients on transactions across the infrastructure, energy and mining sectors.

Busisiwe Sibeko

Busisiwe is a Senior Associate in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure department in the Johannesburg office. Busisiwe has assisted in advising both domestic and international clients in respect of the development and financing aspects projects across Africa. She also has worked with clients on transactions across the infrastructure and energy sectors and has vast experience in drafting finance documents and project documents. She has a keen interest in PPPs and renewable projects.

Cameron Dunstan-Smith

Cameron is a Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and heads the Corporate Crime and Investigations practice in the Johannesburg office. Cameron has specialized investigations and compliance for the past 17 years and his extensive experience covers the full suite of investigations issues (corruption, fraud, misconduct) as well as compliance (anti-bribery and corruption due diligence and advisory) and regulatory (sanctions, anti-money laundering and related offences) matters. Cameron has been involved in a wide range of regulatory matters, FCPA and UK Bribery Act investigations and compliance advice and due diligence, anti-money laundering compliance and representing clients facing government or regulatory enforcement action. He has worked in multiple African jurisdictions, the UK, East Asia, Europe and the United States on a variety of investigations and has provided advice to regulators in South Africa, the United States and the UK. Cameron's broad depth of experience in the South African and African market, coupled with his international exposure and experience, provides a unique service offering to clients seeking a local South African or global perspective concerning investigations and compliance issues. Supported by Herbert Smith Freehills' global Corporate Crime and Investigations practice, Cameron is well placed to provide clients with local expertise with added the benefit of drawing the expertise of lawyers in the firm's global offices. Due to the international nature of investigations, this is of great value to clients seeking seamless service in multiple jurisdictions as well as clients who appreciate the benefit of a firm with investigations experience and dealings with regulators the world over. Cameron is well regarded in the investigations market in South Africa and is ranked across multiple legal rankings directories in the field of investigations in South Africa.

Carey-Anne Jennings

Carey-Anne is a Director in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group, specialising in debt and equity aspects of project finance and public private partnerships. Carey-Anne has advised clients on several limited recourse project finance transactions (including across the energy, resources and infrastructure sectors), equity investments, partnerships and joint ventures as well as syndicated and term loans. She has also advised numerous clients in relation to accommodation, telecommunications, renewable energy, toll road and various road related infrastructure projects, as well as captive power projects and independent funding of renewable energy projects in Africa.

Ernst Muller

Ernst is a Director based in Johannesburg, South Africa reporting directly to the Global Head of ESG. He has been mandated within his role to be one of the main point persons responsible for ESG across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), supporting the strategic focus of both the Global and UK, and EMEA ESG leads. Ernst is a "Natural Scientist turned Regulatory Lawyer". The combination of his skills as an Environmental Scientist and Lawyer makes him the ideal ESG lawyer – bridging the gap between the ever-expanding universe of ESG rights and specific obligations, technical expertise, and in-depth industry knowledge. Owing to his background in Environmental Sciences (B.Sc. and B.Sc. HONS) and because he is based in Africa, Ernst’s practice focusses on clients within the extractives and natural resources sector. Liaising and advising clients on particularly pertinent issues within these sectors as they grapple with the evolving regulatory space and in many instances shifting business models. In addition to advising clients across hard and soft law issues, he is well-versed in negotiations, transactional work, judicial review proceedings, international arbitrations, and high-court litigation. Ernst’s clients include governments across Africa and the Middle East, indigenous and local communities, non-government organisations and multinational enterprises. His impact on, influence and level of access to clients across the spectrum is unique for a non-partner due to his position in the market as one of few solely focused ESG lawyers in the region. Since qualifying in 2016, Ernst has established himself as a leading ESG lawyer on the continent. His commitment to ESG and success in this field is illustrated by the fact that Ernst currently represents Africa on the International Bar Association's (IBA) Sustainable Development Goals and ESG working group, the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance's steering committee, and the Green Hydrogen Organisation's (GH2) standard committee. In addition, he is regularly invited to participate at conferences across Africa and the Middle East addressing senior stakeholders on ESG topics. Ernst regularly addresses postgraduate students and academic departments at universities as a guest lecturer on matters related to ESG, green hydrogen, mining, and sustainable development. He is also an ambassador for Cambridge University's Democratising Education for Global Sustainability and Justice programme. Ernst frequently publishes on ESG-related topics ranging from policies and global legal developments to local community engagement processes, mineral and sustainability law reform processes, and climate change policies (most of the articles are available here).

Fiorella Noriega Del Valle

Fiorella Noriega Del Valle is a Director in the Johannesburg Dispute Resolution practice. Fiorella's practice focuses on commercial dispute resolution and corporate crime and investigations. She has worked on a wide range of complex investigations and commercial disputes for both local and international clients. Her experience includes dispute resolution through litigation in the South African courts, domestic arbitrations, and international arbitrations under the auspices of the ICC, LCIA, AFSA, HKIAC and ad hoc arbitrations. Fiorella holds an Advanced Certificate in International Arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and is one of the inaugural co-chairs of the Young Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (Young AFSA).

Jean Meijer

Jean is a competition partner with over 25 years' experience and is Co-Head of the Herbert Smith Freehills Africa Practice and the Managing Partner of the Herbert Smith Freehills Johannesburg office. Jean works with clients on all aspects of competition law, including merger control, cartel and other prohibited practice investigations, exemption applications and competition compliance. She has knowledge of the competition laws of many African countries and regularly helps clients with multi-jurisdictional African mergers.

Jonathan Ripley-Evans

Jonathan Ripley-Evans is a Partner based in the Johannesburg office and heads up the South African Disputes practice. Jonathan has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution and general commercial litigation. He has also acted as mediator and as advisor/representative in both mediations and arbitrations, domestic and international. Jonathan is an AFSA accredited mediator and arbitrator and currently holds the position of Vice President of the AFSA Court. He also sits as a member of the court of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and International Arbitration Centre (LACIAC).He was member of the core drafting committee responsible for the revision of the AFSA International Commercial Arbitration Rules which were launched in 2021. He is an accredited Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb). His practice is geared towards alternative dispute resolution, in particular arbitration and mediation but is equally placed to administer complex commercial court litigation. He specialises in the resolution of commercial disputes in a wide range of sectors including energy, mining, tourism, hospitality, property, insurance and construction and engineering.

Lebo Ramokone

Lebo is a Director in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group. Lebo focuses on project development and financing aspects of projects across Africa. She also has experience in debt, equity and quasi-equity corporate financing transactions in Africa across various sectors.

Lesetja Morapi

Lesetja is a Director based in the Johannesburg office. Lesetja's practice focuses on all aspects of competition and antitrust regulation, including merger control, cartels and other prohibited behavioural conduct. Lesetja's also advises clients in other regulatory fields including consumer protection, gaming, postal and logistics regulation, advertising and marketing, as well as civil litigation. Lesetja also has knowledge and experience providing advice to clients on merger control in various other southern African jurisdictions.

Monde Coto

Monde is a Director based in our Johannesburg office. Monde specialises in venture capital, private M&A transactions and equity capital markets transactions. Monde has advised on numerous listings and capital raises on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, including rights offers across the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. He also advises clients on general corporate matters, including corporate governance and the ongoing obligations of listed entities. Monde has unique and leading experience when it comes to South African venture capital transactions as prior to rejoining Herbert Smith Freehills in November 2023, Monde was the General Counsel for Naspers Foundry, the largest venture capital fund in South Africa at the time. As General Counsel, Monde was the lead and primary lawyer on Naspers Foundry investments.

Nick Altini

Nick has twenty years of experience in legal practice. He has previously been the department head for competition law at one of South Africa's leading national law firms, and in the Johannesburg office of a global business law firm.

Patrick Hirsch

Patrick is a lawyer with 30 years' experience, he specialises in project development and project finance, including public private partnerships. Patrick acts for both borrowers and lenders in South Africa and other African countries across a range of industries. In more recent years, his practice has concentrated on the energy transition.

Patrick Leyden

Patrick is a Corporate Partner in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group in Johannesburg. Patrick is a corporate and regulatory lawyer practicing across a number of industry sectors but specialising in the mining and energy sectors within Sub-Saharan Africa. His experience includes domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, corporate restructurings, joint ventures, private equity, and black economic empowerment and indigenisation transactions. Patrick regularly advises JSE-listed mining companies on compliance with domestic mining legislation and has acted for a number of multinational banks in relation to precious metals transactions.

Ross Lomax

Ross is a Corporate partner in the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group in the Johannesburg office. His practice focuses on M&A (largely private sector) and general corporate work. He is a leading corporate lawyer in South Africa with 20 years of experience acting for well-known local and international mining, commercial and industrial companies with a particular focus on the energy sector. Ross represents a wide range of clients including listed and unlisted South African corporates and multinational corporations. He has acted for clients in all sectors with a recent focus on Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) transactions and transactions in the renewable energy, mining and telecommunications sectors. Ross also specialises in the corporate components of project work. He has advised on approximately 40 renewable energy projects under the auspices of the South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Programme (REIPP). Ross also assists clients with investigations, complaints and charges initiated by regulatory bodies such as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Competition Commission and the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA). He has dealt with offences such as insider trading, market manipulation, trading in closed periods and price fixing. Ross provides corporate support on commercial litigation matters relating to, amongst others, disputes arising from allegations of breach of contract and breaches of the Companies Act.

Rudolph du Plessis

Rudolph is a Partner in the Corporate Practice in the Herbert Smith Freehills Johannesburg Office. He is an experienced Corporate and M&A lawyer specialising in private and public M&A and equity capital raising transactions. Rudolph is a well-established and respected practitioner in the South African M&A market. Having practised for more than 25 years, he has seen a split between domestic work for South African clients, work for multinationals investing in South Africa and Sub-Saharan work for domestic and multinational clients. Rudolph advises a number of JSE listed companies on corporate governance and the South African Companies Act. Rudolph specialises in private and public M&A and equity capital raising transactions. He advises corporates, banks and private capital investors. He also has particular expertise in cross-border M&A transactions and regularly advises foreign companies on investment in South Africa.

Sandhya Foster

Sandhya is a director based in Johannesburg, specialising in competition law. Sandhya has experience covering a broad range of competition law related matters including prohibited practices (advisory and litigation as well as assisting with corporate leniency applications), merger control, market inquiries and dawn raids. She often provides competition law compliance advice and has regularly assisted clients with compliance audits, programmes and training. Sandhya's expertise extends beyond South Africa to sub-Saharan Africa where she regularly provides multi-jurisdictional merger control advice and has assisted on multi-jurisdictional merger filings both in Africa and EMEA.

Sarah Burman

Sarah is a Corporate Senior Associate in the firm's Projects, Energy and Infrastructure practice group. Sarah is a corporate lawyer with experience in advising clients on M&A transactions in a wide range of sectors. Sarah has a particular focus on renewable energy and specialises in the corporate aspects of project work (from the development stage to the commercial operation stage) as well as M&A transactions in the renewable energy secondary market. Her experience includes advising multinational clients on renewable energy transactions in South Africa and Southern Africa.

Stewart Payne

Stewart is a senior associate in the competition practice, based in Johannesburg. Stewart has assisted clients on various aspects of competition law, including in relation to merger control, market inquiries, exemptions, cartel and other prohibited practices and involving both litigious and advisory work. Stewart been involved in a number of complex and high-profile matters across these areas. He provides ongoing advice and support to certain key clients of the firm, including in the telecoms, digital markets, FMCG and agro-processing sectors. He has also assisted in competition compliance audits and training. In addition, Stewart has assisted clients on various regulatory matters including in the broadcasting, sugar and transport sectors. Although primarily focussed on South Africa, Stewart has worked on a range of matters involving merger control and anti-competitive practices across other sub-Saharan African jurisdictions as well, notably in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and in relation to the COMESA competition law regime.

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