Practice Areas
- Public law and regulatory
- Litigation and dispute resolution
- Crisis management
- ESG and sustainability
- Native title and indigenous heritage
Career
Peter is a partner and former Chair of the Africa Practice, and is based in London. Peter excels in helping resolve contentious issues arising from mining projects and related developments in Africa. His areas of knowledge include crisis management, resource nationalism, mineral and petroleum regulation in developing countries (including international best practice), black economic empowerment and indigenisation law, international investment law and investment protection. Owing to Peter's knowledge, he has significant experience in resource regulatory issues across Anglophone Africa. As a consequence, he regularly advises clients on an array of contentious matters involving States in sub-Saharan Africa, including disputes arising from the negotiation and implementation of major mine development agreements. He is also well versed in the sub-Saharan African geopolitical climate and accordingly provides strategic advice not only on issues related to the mineral regulatory framework but also on how to navigate the framework within the prevailing economic and political conditions in key African mining jurisdictions. He is particularly skilled in crisis management and has provided professional advice on an urgent basis to clients to assist them in managing and mitigating significant country risks. Peter’s experience also includes the Middle East where he has recently represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as international legal counsel on the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ mineral law reform project. In this regard, Peter led a team of the firm Kramer lawyers who advised the Ministry on the full suite of implementing regulations and guidelines supporting the recently promulgated Mining Investment Law, 2020, which came into force in January 2021. The project entailed providing advice on international best practice in the mining sector, drafting detailed regulations to supplement the Mining Investment Law, 2020, and preparing the different sets of guidelines which will complement the regulations. Peter is an accomplished speaker and a regular presenter and panellist at conferences, courses and Parliamentary hearings in South Africa and internationally. He has also written extensively on the topics of mining, resource nationalism, the regulation of foreign direct investment, and black economic empowerment and indigenisation law. He was a council member of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association responsible for the Africa Regional Forum, the chair of the International Bar Association’s mining law committee advisory board and is an honorary lecturer at the University of Dundee in Scotland's Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy.
For additional information on Peter’s professional background, please visit: https://www.hsfkramer.com/our-people/p/peter-leon
