We have specialist experience in the following areas of law, and can assist by providing transactional advice, drafting, perusing agreements, property transfers and/or litigation in relation to:
• Companies Act related work – including shareholders agreements and memorandums of incorporation
• Private company mergers & acquisitions
• Sale of business or shares agreement, and related security documents such as cessions of shares
• Joint venture agreements
• Commission sharing agreements or referral agreements
• Service level / consultancy agreements
• Manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements
• Association agreements for close corporations
• Drafting and amending trust deeds, and attending to new trust registrations
• Consumer Protection Act related work – including terms and conditions of sale
• National Credit Act related work
• Employment contracts and letters of appointment
• Misconduct and disciplinary hearings
• Restraints of trade and confidentiality agreements
• Employment policies and codes of conduct
• Mediating disputes, CCMA and labour court litigation
• Unfair dismissal, retrenchments and restructuring
• Software services eg: license, support and maintenance
• IT services eg: reseller, distribution and service agreements
• Web services eg: website usage, privacy and user policies
• Copyright IP services eg: copyright ownership, domain names
We can assist in all areas of data privacy law, both where South African law (such as the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”)) and offshore laws apply (such as the GDPR).
POPIA Privacy Packs: To assist South African businesses achieve a minimal and defensible compliance level with POPIA, we offer a ‘privacy pack’ for a fixed fee. It contains various policies and documents clients can “plug in” to their businesses. Down time, as and when client’s budgets allow, we can assist with increasing their level of compliance with add-ons to the privacy pack have purchased.
We can assist in all areas of civil & commercial litigation.
Our assistance includes:
• Strategy planning on all elements of the B-BBEE Scorecard on all Sector B-BBEE Codes
• Implementation of the B-BBEE Strategy, which includes drafting of any legal documentation
• Employment Equity consulting
• Advising on ownership structures
• Turnkey Employee Ownership and Broad-Based Ownership solutions, which includes: preliminary analysis, structuring, allocation to staff or community beneficiaries, empowerment optimization, communicating the plan to employees and trustees, trustee training and administration of the trust
• Training relating to B-BBEE in general and trustee training for Employee Ownership schemes, Trusts and Broad-Based Ownership schemes
• Estate Planning
• Drafting Wills (including advising whether a separate International Will is required for offshore assets and drafting same)
• Drafting Living Wills
• Drafting and reviewing trust deeds and registering new trusts
•Administration of deceased estates
We can assist in all family law related matters, including:
• Divorce
•Financial settlement and parenting plan agreements
We believe strongly that in many circumstances our clients should consider whether utilising alternative dispute resolution methods to settle disputes would be preferable.
In addition, a Rule of South Africa’s High Courts effective from March 2020 compels individuals to declare that they have considered mediation as a solution to any legal matter before commencing litigation steps, and if mediation has not been considered, the court itself is obliged to manage cases effectively and recommend mediation as a dispute resolution if it deems it appropriate.
Abigail Reynolds, Clarissa Molteno and PJ Veldhuizen are qualified mediators, and PJ Veldhuizen is a qualified arbitrator. We can assist in either representing clients during mediations or arbitrations, or acting as the mediator or arbitrator.
Our assistance includes:
• Expert drafting and review of agreements for wealth management clients and legal review of associated marketing material
• Assisting in the entire fund formation process, including the structuring of funds, applications with the FSCA and associated documentation
• Assisting financial services institutions to manage the risk, respond to the regulators and incorporate the regulatory developments into their business in the most effective way
We can assist with all property related and conveyancing transactions including:
• Registration of transfers of properties (residential, industrial and commercial)
• Registering or cancellations of mortgage bonds
• Property developments and schemes
• Sectional title schemes and rules
• Property ownership by non-residents
• Servitudes
• Notarial bonds
• Advice on conditions in deeds of transfer
• Practical and strategic advice on the application and interpretation of environmental, heritage and planning law, including the legal regulation of the impacts of human activities on water, air, biodiversity, land and heritage resources
• Independent legal review of environmental impact assessment processes and environmental management plans
• Environmental legal due diligence
• Identification of options and forums for managing risks and resolving disputes, including making representations to public authorities/statutory bodies and litigation support
• Monitoring of legislation and advice to clients on potential civil and criminal liability under legislation, including directors and employees/agents/managers’ liability
• Legislative drafting – working with regulators to develop appropriate and plain language environmental legislation
• Founding documents for South African NGOs
• Tax exemption and 18A (deduction of donations) applications
•Applications to be registered with the Nonprofit Organisations Board
•Keeping registrations up to date and assisting with compliance and reporting
•NPO reporting and other services
• Advising on re-structuring
•Assisting not-for-profits with B-BBEE
•Commercial drafting work for NGO clients
Tax Specialist Advice for Legal Transactions:
We can advise on tax related matters in respect of your legal transactions, including for:
• Employee Share or Profit Share Schemes
• The use of Trust structures
• Share buybacks
Seminars:
We are available to present at seminars, either in-house to staff or the board of directors, or externally to your businesses’ clients. The seminars can cover a variety of topics in order to educate the audience regarding a specific area of law or the impact that recent changes in the legislative framework in South Africa will have on their businesses.
Unit B6 Westlake Square
Westlake Drive
Westlake, 7945
Cape Town, South Africa