Werksmans Attorneys is a large law firm

Law firm

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...

 based in Sandton, Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, with offices in Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, Paarl

Paarl

Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...

, Stellenbosch and Tyger Valley. It was established in the early 1900s.

History

Werksmans and Jan S. de Villiers merged in 2009. It is connected to an extensive African network through Lex Africa which comprises 25 leading law firms in Africa’s major economies.

Practice areas

Its focus is on corporate and commercial law

Commercial law

Commercial law is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions...

 and its clients include multinationals, listed companies, financial institutions, entrepreneurs and government. Areas of practice are structured into two main business streams:

• Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution
  Dispute resolution
  Dispute resolution is the process of resolving disputes between parties.-Methods:Methods of dispute resolution include:* lawsuits * arbitration* collaborative law* mediation* conciliation* many types of negotiation* facilitation...
  
  , which focuses on litigation and alternative dispute resolution in the form of mediation and arbitration.
• Corporate & Commercial Legal Services, which provides transactional and regulatory services. All related areas of law, in fields such as taxation, exchange control, competition, mining, employment and black economic empowerment
  Black Economic Empowerment
  Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...
  
  , are handled by specialists in those areas.

Key practice areas include:

• Banking & Finance Law
• Business Recovery, Insolvency & Restructuring
• Competition Law
  Competition law
  Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, is law that promotes or maintains market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies....
  
  
• Corporate / M&A Legal Services
• Employment Law
• Environmental Law
  Environmental law
  Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
  
  
• Forensics
• Health, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences Law
• Intellectual Property (IP) Law
• Litigation & Dispute Resolution
• Media
  Mass media
  Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
  
   & Communications Law
• Mining, Energy & Natural Resources Law
• Property Law
  Property law
  Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property and in personal property, within the common law legal system. In the civil law system, there is a division between movable and immovable property...
  
  
• Sport & Entertainment Law
• Tax
• Technology Law