Webber Wentzel is an African law firm headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The firm operates in a collaborative alliance with global law firm, Linklaters, and is the South African associate of the largest African association of law firms, ALN (formerly the African Legal Network).
The firm is considered a member of the "Big Five law firms" of leading South African law firms.
The firm is a level 2 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) contributor.
Webber Wentzel was founded in 1868 and is the only large South African law firm to retain a traditional partnership organisation and not incorporate into a limited liability company.
Major mergers in Webber Wentzel's history include Webber Wentzel & Co merging with Bowens Inc. in 1995 and Webber Wentzel Bowens merging with Mallinicks Inc. in 2008. Concurrent with its merger with Mallinicks Inc., the firm shortened its name to Webber Wentzel.
The Maitland Group, a fund administrator and fiduciary services specialist with over £140 billion of assets under administration in April 2015, was founded in Luxembourg in 1976 by former Webber Wentzel partner Eric Pfaff as the Luxembourg presence for Webber Wentzel In 2008, the Maitland Group and Webber Wentzel ended over 31 years of formal ties.
On 1 January 2012, Webber Wentzel became affiliated with ALN, and on 1 February 2013, it entered into a collaborative alliance with global law firm Linklaters.
Johannesburg (1888)
Cape Town (1969)
Major deals include acting for:
Anheuser-Busch InBev in respect of its business combination with SABMiller plc (c GBP79 billion)
Woolworths Holdings Limited in respect of its takeover of Australian retailer, David Jones , valued at AUD2,14 billion (including ZAR10 billion rights offer), and its acquisition of the remaining shares that it did not already own in Country Road
Absa Group Limited's £1.3 billion (ZAR18.3 billion) acquisition of Barclays plc's African operations
Walmart's ZAR16.5 billion acquisition of a 51% stake in Massmart
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) US$5.5 billion acquisition of a 20% stake in Standard Bank of South Africa, at the time the largest foreign investment in South Africa
Bain Capital ZAR25 billion acquisition of Edcon Limited
Absa Group Limited in the acquisition of 60% of the issued ordinary share capital by Barclays Bank plc's
Vodafone ZAR22.5 billion acquisition of 15% of Vodacom
Actis and Old Mutual in their ZAR5.16 billion secondary buy-out of Alstom (SA) (Proprietary) Limited
MTN Group (MTN) in a failed merger with India's Bharti Airtel (Bharti), the largest announced but uncompleted merger in South Africa's history with a value of US$23 billion
AIIF, Macquarie run fund, in the $400m toll road project in Nigeria
Vale in acquiring BSG Resources
In 1957 the firm advised Consolidated Diamond Mines of South-West Africa (CDM) in the Great South-West Diamond Case. CDM had been given exclusive rights to mine for diamonds in a diamond-rich area by the administrator of South West Africa, who subsequently conferred the right to Suidwes-Afrika Prospekteers. CDM successfully sued South West Africa to protect their sole right to mine.
In 1973 the firm successfully completed the case of Venkatrathnan and Another vs Officer Commanding Robben Island. In the case the court decided that prisoners were in principle entitled to study for tertiary degrees.
In 2004 the firm successfully challenged South African pharmaceutical price capping legislation in the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa in terms of which pharmacists, when dispensing prescription medicine, could charge a fixed fee limited to 26% and capped at R26.00.
Notable alumni of the firm include:
Charles Augustus Wentzel, former Chief Magistrate of the Witwatersrand
Henry Charles Hull, former board member of Anglo American Corporation and the first Minister of Finance (South Africa)
Sir Edward Solomon, former South African Senator and Minister of Public Works (South Africa)
Walter Webber, former Member of Parliament for the Labour Party in Troyeville, founder and champion of the Bantu Men's Social Centre and the Joint Council of Europeans and Natives.
Ed Southey, President of the Law Society of the Transvaal (1985 and 1986) President of Association of Law Societies of Republic of South Africa (1991)
Stanley Sessel, former President of the Council of the Association of Law Societies
Gerald Mallinicks, former board member of the World Law Group
Brett Kebble, mining magnate
Sheila Camerer, South African ambassador to Bulgaria
Nicky Newton-King, Chief Executive Officer of the JSE Limited.
Eric Pfaff, founder of the Maitland Group.
