Andrew has been a Partner of the firm since 1 September 1997 having joined the firm in January 1994 where he was articled.
Today Andrew oversees the firm’s Dispute Resolution Department and is the Joint Head of Corporate and Commercial.
The focus of Andrew’s practice is predominantly civil litigation, encompassing arbitrations and High Court disputes, commercial drafting and advice in the field of commercial law (including transactional work), corporate insolvency, asset recovery, business rescue, banking and finance and providing opinions on legislation, corporate commercial disputes, banking, trust and related matters.
Andrew has been involved in a number of cross border litigation matters including in the neighboring states and has advised both South African and international companies in relation to litigation in the United Kingdom and has forged strong ties with legal practitioners in the USA, Australia and England. He has also been involved in the mediation of commercial disputes and advising thereon.
The litigation which Andrew is involved in spans a wide spectrum of matters including some of the most intricate and substantial legal disputes in South Africa. Andrew has acted in a number of high profile matters including auditor liability matters. He presently acts for JSE listed companies, banks and multinationals amongst others and renders advice relating to contractual and delictual disputes, corporate asset recoveries, interdicts, winding-up and corporate restructuring (including business rescue), claims based on large scale thefts, misrepresentation, civil fraud and banking related matters.
Andrew has recently been involved in:
- prominent litigation and related corporate work (including transactions) associated with one of South Africa’s largest corporate frauds perpetrated against a South African listed company and the recovery of in excess of R1,2 billion for it to date;
- auditor liability claims which were successfully settled, one of which resulted in the largest auditor liability claim at the time in South Africa;
- acting for a multinational in a complex business rescue matter where the international client enjoyed a claim of in excess of R1 billion which, following an innovative application which took issue with certain of the business rescue sections of the 2008 Companies Act, was successfully resolved;
- representing one of South Africa’s largest Banks in defended litigation relating to securities transactions;
- successful arbitrations relating to contractual interpretation;
- a number of reported Supreme Court of Appeal decisions;
- resisting a claim from a United States claimant for US$188 million which it applied to have recognised and enforced in South Africa;
- a high profile minority oppression suit which has resulted in reported judgments, which were favourably decided for our client.
On the financial services side, Andrew has acted on behalf of three of the four major banks in both litigation and commercial matters. In 2009 he was involved in a ground breaking decision relating to the interpretation of the National Credit Act which had a profound influence on the manner in which such Act has since been applied. In 2014 he successfully negotiated a suite of agreements to unwind a complex preference share structure which a Bank held with a JSE listed company. Andrew was recently requested by the same Bank to prepare a suite of agreements concerning a number of new financial products which it wished to develop for its high net-worth clients, underpinned by securities.
He has also been involved in preference share related matters, both from a litigation and corporate commercial perspective and earlier in 2019 advised on a transaction involving a Singapore Biotech company which has since been successfully negotiated.
