Leading South African Law Firms Merge

Mar 23, 2015 | 2015, News

Two of South Africa’s longest established law firms have joined forces in a significant mid-market merger. Fairbridges is the oldest law firm in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, having been established in Cape Town in 1812. Wertheim Becker was founded over a century ago in 1904 in Johannesburg. From 01 March 2015 these well-respected firms will combine to practise as Fairbridges Wertheim Becker.

“This is a carefully considered strategic and logical convergence of two well-matched firms which will significantly enhance our combined resources and capacity,”says Fairbridges managing partner, Dick Cheeseman. His sentiments are echoed by Wertheim Becker’s senior partner,  Bernard Joffe; “The two firms are a complimentary fit with exciting synergies, which we are confident will be of considerable benefit to all our clients.” The merger creates a full-service corporate and commercial law firm, with significant specialist expertise and professional experience across the board. “Through our active and exclusive South African membership of leading international law firm network, TerraLex, we are able to offer our clients world class, cross-border legal services throughout Africa and around the globe,” says Amish Kika of Wertheim Becker. “The reputations of both firms are solidly based on an unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality representation and our network membership enables us to benchmark ourselves against world class best practices.” David Short of Fairbridges emphasises that both firms are proud of their deep roots, rich heritage and solid professional values which have sustained and invigorated the firms for so long. “While we rely on our experience and maturity, we constantly seek to refresh, renew and adapt our services -and the way we deliver them – to add value. There is a massive demand in South Africa for affordable, practical and constructive legal support. We believe that we are well positioned to meet that need while upholding the highest standards of the legal profession.” This development in the domestic South African legal market by these influential firms will be welcomed by many who have demonstrated their desire for mid-tier, accessible, relationship-building and enterprising local law firms.

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