Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, DLA Piper’s former South African ally, has added six new partners in its finance and employment teams including three banking directors from Norton Rose Fulbright.
The director, or partner-level, appointments follow the hires of tax directors Dries Hoek and Mark Linington from Linklaters ally Webber Wentzel in September.
The firm has hired Norton Rose Fulbright directors Pierre Swart, Gavin Noeth and Bridget King alongside Cheadle Thompson & Haysom director Zaaheda Mayet and Webber Wentzel senior associate Carmen de Villiers, who also joins as a director.
Swart was previously South African head of debt capital markets at Norton Rose Fulbright. Noeth specialises in project finance, King focuses on financial regulation issues, Mayet is a pension funds expert and de Villiers has advised on issues including debt and acquisition finance.
Meanwhile Cliffe Dekker has also hired employment director Samiksha Singh. Singh was previously a senior associate at Cowan Harper Attorneys.
The firm said the appointments were in line with its strategy to grow its practice areas in key sectors, particularly financial services, telecoms, technology, real estate and infrastructure.
Cliffe Dekker has hired a number of other senior lawyers this year, including Deepa Vallabh and Christoff Pienaar from Webber Wentzel and Hunter Thyne from Hogan Lovells.
The focus on growth follows the firm’s decision not to merge with ally DLA Piper earlier this year.
