Christo Els, Senior Partner at Webber Wentzel

Webber Wentzel is pleased to announce the promotion of 13 talented attorneys to the esteemed role of partner. These promotions recognise the newly appointed partners’ outstanding contributions and further solidify the firm’s dedication to empowering its people to reach their full potential.

This exceptional bench of talent who share the firm’s values and ethos spans across the firm’s practice areas, including Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Environment, Financial Regulatory, Projects, and Public Law. They each bring a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success within their respective fields.

The firm prioritises continuous learning and targeted diversity initiatives, ensuring its team possesses the skills and experiences necessary to deliver exceptional client service. These talented individuals are poised to play a critical role in shaping the firm’s future and ensuring continued success for their clients.

“We are thrilled to recognise and reward these outstanding attorneys for their significant contributions to the firm,” said Christo Els, Senior Partner. “We are confident that their leadership will play a pivotal role in shaping our future and furthering our commitment to delivering exceptional legal services to our clients”.

The firm’s newly promoted partners are Tayla Dye, Lubumba Kamukwamba, Mmotlana Kgoadi, Lerato Lamola, Bernadette Lötter, Anél de Meyer, Dudu Mogapi, Mncedisi Mpungose, Paula-Ann Novotny, Mapaseka Phala, Dintwa Serumula, Ziyanda Sibeko, and Nicolette Van Vuuren

Tayla Dye has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Dispute Resolution Practice area.

Tayla focuses on commercial dispute resolution. She advises on numerous types of disputes in several fora, including the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal, High Courts and arbitration and appeal boards. Her experience includes advising on general contractual disputes, construction disputes, suretyship disputes, shareholder disputes, property, and property valuation​ disputes, mining disputes, administrative law reviews and criminal matters.

Lubumba Kamukwamba has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Public Law practice area.

Lubumba focuses on public law matters, particularly government contracting and public procurement. She has experience advising both public and private sector clients on how the government passes laws or regulations, exercises its statutory powers, manages its finances and contracts for goods or services. She is regularly part of teams representing major clients in complex judicial review proceedings before the High Court and other public law disputes. She frequently does legal opinion work on the intricate and often interrelated areas of public decision-making, the powers and competence of the various levels of government, constitutional and administrative law, local government law, and the various requirements that apply to government and public entities. Lubumba also has experience preparing submissions on proposed legislation or amendments to legislation and providing regulatory and compliance advice to clients in the consumer goods/retail, e-commerce, gambling, pharmaceutical, private security and transport industries.​​

Mmotlana Kgoadi has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Projects practice area.

Mmotlana specialises in project development for project finance transactions, with particular expertise in the infrastructure sector.  She has substantial experience in structuring the commercial agreements for such transactions as well as drafting and negotiating the operational arrangements, in particular, in respect to procurement and construction contracts, operation and maintenance contracts, power purchases, and bespoke public-private partnership agreements.

Lerato Lamola has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Financial Regulatory practice area.

Lerato specialises in financial regulatory law. Her areas of focus include banking, financial markets, collective investment schemes, fintech and disruptive financial services, consumer credit and anti-money laundering. She has represented corporate clients in various insider trading investigations, making representations to the former Financial Services Board (now the Financial Sector Conduct Authority), as well as, representing corporate clients before the National Consumer Tribunal. She has advised numerous local and foreign financial institutions on a wide range of regulatory topics impacting the financial sector. She also advises on financial products, product development, regulatory licensing and structuring of agreements. Lerato is also authorised to practice law in the USA.​

Bernadette Lötter has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Dispute resolution practice area.

Bernadette specialises in dispute resolution, with a particular interest in commercial litigation. She also has experience in print, broadcasting and media law, and has been involved in numerous matters involving access to information.

Anél de Meyer has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Dispute Resolution practice area.

Anél specialises in commercial and corporate litigation and arbitrations with a focus on disputes concerning administrative law, contract law, constitutional law, company law and financial regulatory – and services law. She has been involved in large, complex and niche disputes for state-owned entities, listed companies, Non-Governmental Organisations, financial institutions, local banks and individuals in their professional capacity, in relation to: environmental authorisations, restraints of trade, auditing, commercial contracts and breaches of contract, healthcare, construction, foreclosures, valuations, private equity deals, reviews of administrative decisions, proceedings instituted by professional and regulatory bodies. She has been involved in enquiries before the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors and represented financial institutions in enforcement proceedings before the now Financial Sector Conduct Authority. ​

Dudu Mogapi has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Competition, Trade & Investment practice area.

Dudu Mogapi focuses on all aspects of competition law, including merger notifications, prohibited practices, compliance and general competition law advice. She has expertise in the telecommunications, agribusiness, property and retail sectors. Prior to joining Webber Wentzel, Dudu was a case manager at the Competition Tribunal of South Africa.​​

Mncedisi Mpungose has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Corporate practice area.

Mncedisi focuses on general corporate and commercial law, restructures, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and JSE-related matters.

Paula-Ann has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Environment practice area.

Paula-Ann has experience in conducting environmental due diligence investigations and legal compliance audits, as well as contractual drafting and drafting legal opinions on a range of procedural, substantive and regulatory queries. In addition, she has assisted clients engaged in environmental permitting applications, prosecutions and appeal proceedings. She also compiles informative pieces and client alerts on legislative amendments and regulatory updates in environmental regimes and has drafted textbook chapters and contributed environmental knowledge to various institutional platforms. Her experience extends to advising clients on ESG-related impacts, risks and opportunities, such as opining on dedicated environmental and climate change-related laws, advising in support of project development and strategic M&A activity, establishing governance systems and procedures, and regulatory mapping. In 2022, she spent six months at Linklaters LLP in London on secondment to their ESG team.​

Mapaseka Phala has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Corporate practice area.

​Mapaseka has experience in mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and commercial law and corporate governance.  ​

Dintwa Serumula has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Corporate practice area.

​Dintwa has experience in mergers and acquisitions (public and private), equity capital markets we well as general corporate and commercial law. ​He was also a nominee for Private Practice Most Promising Newcomer 2020 at the African Legal Awards.​

Ziyanda has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Dispute Resolution practice area.

Ziyanda Sibeko has expertise in general commercial litigation and administrative law matters and has acted for various private and public companies, including state-owned entities. He has significant experience in working in highly regulated industries, including mining and financial services.​

Nicolette Van Vuuren has been promoted to Partner at Webber Wentzel in the Employment practice area.

Nicci specialises in employment and employee benefits law, with specific focus on pension funds. She advises and on all legal, governance and risk issues related to pension funds. She has significant experience in pension fund curatorships and investigations, due diligence, regulation, governance and risk, drafting and negotiation of agreements and pension fund-related documentation and generally providing advice to pension funds, members, employers and service providers.

ENDS