DEPARTMENT PROFILE

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

Dispute Resolution

3 ranked lawyers

Band 2

South Africa

Global 2022 View ranking table

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What the team is known for

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr is a prominent player in significant disputes in South Africa, acting for local and global clients. In addition to commercial litigation, the firm also advises on contentious corporate investigations and white-collar criminal matters. The group's clients are drawn from sectors as diverse as energy and natural resources, telecommunications, retail, gaming and financial services, with highly regulated industries a particular area of expertise. The firm additionally represents public sector and parastatal bodies. The team possesses expertise in alternative dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation.

Strengths

The team is "highly recommended on commercial legal matters," remarked one client, adding: "The service provided by the firm is professional, excellent and responsive to the limited-time instructions and requirements of the case."

Another source considered CDH to be "leaders in the telecommunication regulation space in South Africa" with "a very good record in terms of winning litigation matters."

Work highlights

The firm represented Vodacom in a high-value dispute concerning IMT spectrum, including review applications made to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa by competing companies.

Notable practitioners

Clive Rumsey is a long-standing figure in the field who is best known for his construction litigation practice, with mining and insurance being further areas of proficiency.
"He's very big in the construction litigation space."

Jonathan Witts-Hewinson is a long-standing lawyer in South Africa's disputes market. He provides experienced counsel on commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings, with further experience acting as a mediator.
"He's an outstanding litigator."

Practice head Timothy Fletcher is sought out for his counsel on commercial litigation and arbitration proceedings. He acts for private and parastatal companies in sectors including real estate, infrastructure and telecoms.
"He is great, he has a good reputation and is doing good work." "He's a dynamic litigator."

Department Information

This content is provided by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.

Overview

CDH's Dispute Resolution lawyers have a reputation for succeeding in the most sensitive and complex of cases. Our approach is to provide pragmatic, commercially-focused legal solutions for our clients’ most complex problems.

Our Dispute Resolution practice is one of the strongest in South Africa and Kenya. We have over 47 qualified Dispute Resolution lawyers (including 19 partners) in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi who are experienced specialists in litigation, arbitration, mediation and other dispute resolution methods.

Our primary aim is to help you avoid formal litigation or arbitration wherever possible. When a formal process is unavoidable, we take into account your commercial objectives and prospects of success while assessing the legal, commercial and reputational risk. Disputes can be costly and divert valuable resources from a company’s core business. Although legal costs can be high, the costs of focusing senior management on the dispute rather than the core business objectives of your company can be astronomical. Our lawyers are skilled in identifying the correct approach to disputes to influence outcomes more positively and to manage risk most effectively. They will devise the optimum procedural tactics or creative
settlement approach.

We offer a complete service in methods of dispute resolution