DLA Piper continues growth in South Africa with two director appointments 1 March 2023

Global law firm DLA Piper announces the appointment of two new directors in South Africa. Charles Smith joins the firm's Corporate practice and Megan Sturgeon joins the firm's Litigation and Regulatory team on 1 March 2023.

Charles advises both domestic and foreign companies on a wide range of corporate transactions, company and securities law, and corporate governance. This includes takeover bids, private acquisitions and disposals, mergers, joint ventures, restructurings, demergers, black economic empowerment transactions, listings and all forms of capital raises. His experience spans the financial services, consumer goods, food and retail, industrials and technology sectors. He has been involved in some of South Africa’s most significant inward investment transactions, most recently advising Imperial Logistics on DP World’s ZAR12.7 billion takeover bid.

Megan is a commercial litigator whose practice focuses on corporate disputes, international and domestic arbitration and cross-border litigation, in addition to advising on fraud and investigations. She works across all sectors, with particular experience in the industrials, consumer goods, food and retail, telecommunications, hospitality and energy and natural resources sectors. She also brings extensive experience in third party funding and is accustomed to addressing jurisdictional, enforcement and cross-cultural issues in international and cross-border disputes.

Commenting on Charles’s appointment, Peter Bradshaw, Head of DLA Piper’s Corporate practice in South Africa, said: “Our M&A practice is recognised as a market leader, having built a track record for consistently executing more deals globally than any other law firm. Charles’ appointment reflects our continued commitment to invest in our regional practice. His experience adds to our market-leading corporate and M&A capabilities and strengthens our ability to respond to the increasing client demand that we are experiencing in South Africa and across the broader Africa region.”

Kirsty Simpson, Head of Litigation & Regulatory in South Africa, said: “Megan is a great fit for our successful and growing dispute resolution practice. Highly regarded across the industry, she possesses the combination of local market expertise and global perspective that our clients demand of us. At a time when litigation is on the rise and organisations are under pressure to reduce costs, Megan’s third party funding experience will also be invaluable, complementing our ability to offer clients a risk-free solution to disputes through our own independent funding company, Aldersgate Funding Limited (AFL).”

Megan and Charles’ appointments follows a number of director announcements in South Africa over the past 18 months, including most recently Livia Dyer who joined the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology team in September 2022.