About

South Africa is an important market for German multinational car company BMW, as one of a handful of locations where the company produces its luxury automobiles and motorcycles. BMW in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan region has a legal department that, since May 2017, has been led by general manager for legal services, Vimla Parbhoo who brings 16 years of commercial legal experience across a broad range of disciplines to the company. South Africa had the first BMW factory outside of Germany and the legal department has been behind a number of projects in the country, most recently dealing with all legal matters relating to the release of the new BMW 8 series expecting to arrive in South Africa in the first quarter of 2019. The legal department has also undergone changes to better manage BMW’s legal risk in the region, by streamlining processes in the legal department to drive efficiencies, further delineating roles of the team, optimising current resources and building capacity in-house to reduce external legal costs. The team is recognised in this list for having impressed a number of private practice peers during the course of the research.