Expanded Services
Expanding on our five-pillar approach, we also provide expert legal services in various diverse areas of law including:
B-BBEE: We review applications of decisions of the B-BBEE Commissioner, and provide advice on empowerment.
Company: We can assist you with shareholder disputes, rights issues, forced sales, delinquency, minority oppression, director liability, board and directors’ disputes, and derivative actions.
Competition law: At DML, our competition law practice is led by a team of experienced legal practitioners, including Director Matthew Thomson, as well as Theodora Godrich, a former Competition Tribunal Case Manager.
DML provides practical, solution-driven and strategic advice and insight into South Africa’s evolving competition law landscape. We advise clients, both local and international, on all aspects of South African competition law, including merger control, cartel investigations, market inquiries, and abuse of dominance matters, including competition complaints, investigations and Competition Tribunal litigation. Our team has a strong track record in preparing merger notifications, navigating the complexities of public interest considerations, and advising on employment and ownership which is a vital key consideration in mergers.
Our team combines technical knowledge with practical business insight. We work across practice areas to provide holistic legal solutions that align with our clients’ commercial objectives, regulatory obligations, and risk profiles. With a strong grasp of the competition authorities’ evolving enforcement priorities and public policy goals, we support clients in navigating the full scope of compliance and enforcement challenges.
We offer expert competition law advice and representation in relation to:
- Merger control – including drafting merger filings, assessing whether a transaction is notifiable, managing complex and opposed mergers, and intervening in merger proceedings;
- Filing and defending complaints before the Competition Commission;
- Cartel enforcement – leniency applications, settlement negotiations, and internal risk assessments;
- Responding to Commission investigations, including requests for information;
- Compliance with competition legislation, including day-to-day business conduct;
- Prohibited practices – including price fixing, resale price maintenance and restrictive agreements;
- Market conduct concerns – collusive tendering, abuse of dominance and market division;
- Exemption applications under the Competition Act; and
- Drafting and implementing internal competition law compliance policies and conducting staff training.
Whether you are expanding through acquisition, managing regulatory risk, strengthening your compliance framework or wishing to investigate or prosecute anti-competitive conduct, DML’s competition law team can assist.
Construction and Town Planning: We can assist you with reviews of applications against decisions of administrators, development disputes, interdicts, acquisitive prescription.
Consumer law: Most of our work in consumer law involves assisting and advising clients regarding issues pertaining to the National Credit Act and the Consumer Protection Act. However, we also advise clients in more niche areas such as complaints under the WASPA and ISPA codes.
Contract: We specialize in contractual disputes, arbitration, lease disputes, claims for specific performance, damage, cancellation, and repudiation.
Cybercrime: We help you mitigate risks and take proactive steps to deal with cybercrime and ensure data protection. We also assist in dealing with the fallout from data breaches both by assisting with the regulatory requirements and by defending against possible fines or civil action.
Data protection law: We understand the complexities of data privacy regulation and assist many local and multinational companies to manage legal, regulatory and operational risks regarding data protection and privacy issues. Our services include: POPIA compliance; personal information processing best practice; data processing aspects of commercial agreements; website and e-commerce privacy policies; direct marketing law; cross border data flows; outsourcing of data processing; and the applicability of the GDPR.
Entertainment law: We offer expertise in copyright and personality infringement disputes (including Copyright and Performers’ Protection Act), license disputes, contractual disputes, performer’s disputes.
Gambling law: We can assist you in dealing with the National and Provincial Gambling Boards, applications for licences, disputes with the Boards and other licensees and compliance with the gambling and betting laws in South Africa. We act for various online and domestically based bookmakers and betting software providers.
Insolvency and business rescue law: We can assist in applications for winding-up and liquidation of companies, sequestration of persons and partnerships, participation, administration, intervention and setting aside of winding-up and business rescue proceedings, insolvency enquiries under section 417 and 418 of the Companies Act 61 of 1973 and section 424 personal liability applications.
Labour law: We can assist you in a range of employment and labour law issues: in dispute resolution before the CCMA or Labour Courts, including restraint issues, unfair dismissals and unfair labour practices, restraint of trade disputes and applications and employer compliance with relevant labour laws. We also handle legal requirements for dismissals, retrenchments, codes of conduct, workplace discrimination, harassment, employment equity, and compliance with labour law statutes and are well placed to draft the necessary agreements and policies for your workplace.
Notarial Authentication: In South Africa, the authentication of documents is essential for ensuring their legal validity, especially when such documents are to be used overseas. Authentication refers to the process of certifying the validity of a signature, stamp, or seal on a document to verify that the document is genuine. Common documents requiring authentication include inter alia: birth/death certificates, marriage certificates, educational documents, powers of attorney, etc.
In order to properly authenticate documents for international use, certain rules are required to be followed.
As South Africa is a member of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (1961), documents for use in other member countries require an apostille certificate, which is issued by either the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) or a High Court with jurisdiction (in the case of notarially executed documents).
The authentication of documents for use in Non-Hague Convention Countries will require a more detailed process, namely:
The document is signed and stamped by a Notary Public. The notary’s signature is then authenticated by the Registrar of the High Court. The High Court’s authentication is further authenticated by DIRCO. Sometimes it is also a requirement that the relevant foreign embassy or consulate in South Africa also authenticates the document.
DML is able to provide notarial services for the authentication of documents.
Social media law: We have a team of specialists that can assist you in any disputes arising from social media use or any infringement of your rights on any social media platform. We can also educate you and run training workshops on the proper use of social media platforms and the legal risks you face should you make a mistake.
Tax: Our professional services include Tax Court litigation against the Commissioner for SARS, challenging of assessments, GAAR disputes, Alternative Dispute Resolution and settlements.