Our culture is built around community and quality.

If we ask people why they have chosen to work with us, they say that it is not only because of our excellent reputation but also because of our collegial and supportive working environment. Everyone works together and everyone contributes. We form great relationships with our clients and communities. We treat everyone as individuals and take great pride in the quality of our work and relationships.

Founded in 1853, Cliffe Dekker is today one of the largest corporate law firms in South Africa with more than 60 directors (partners), some 160 lawyers and 365 people.

From our offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, we provide a full range of legal resources to support our clients with their strategic business plans. Our focus is on the core areas of commercial activity: corporate; commercial; mergers and acquisitions; capital markets; finance, projects and banking; tax; competition and regulatory; dispute resolution: litigation and arbitration; employment; technology; property and intellectual property.

We act for enterprises across the full spectrum of businesses, including local, national and multinational companies in a wide range of business sectors and government organisations. Our clients range from small start-ups to household name corporations.

Cliffe Dekker's alliance with the international DLA Piper organisation means that our people experience the benefits of being part of a dynamic global legal network.

Cliffe Dekker is a member of DLA Piper Group, an alliance of independent law firms. DLA Piper is one of the largest legal services organisations in the world with over 3,600 lawyers in more than 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

A career with Cliffe Dekker gives you opportunities to work on stimulating multi-jurisdictional work in Africa and internationally with clients and colleagues around the world. We have been able to secure secondments within DLA Piper offices to some of our high performers.

In independent surveys of the leading law firms, corporate South Africa has rated Cliffe Dekker among the top two law firms in South Africa for the past five years in a row, and placed us at No 1 for three years.

Many of our practice areas are consistently ranked in the top tiers in the leading international law directories.

• Runners up in the 2005 Chambers Global Corporate Law Firm of the Year, Africa awards
• Corporate/M&A practice ranked No 1 in Chambers Global 2008; PLC Which Lawyer? 2008 Yearbook; Legal 500 Series, 2007
• Capital Markets & Debt Equity practice ranked as the Leading practice in South Africa by PLC Which Lawyer? 2008
• Banking & Finance practice ranked No 1 in Chambers Global 2008
• Dispute Resolution practice ranked No 1 in the Legal 500 Series, 2007; ranked in Band 2 in Chambers Global 2008; Highly Recommended in PLC Which Lawyer? 2008
• Employment practice ranked No 1 in the Legal 500 Series, 2007; Highly Recommended in PLC Which Lawyer? 2008
• Competition practice ranked in Band 2 in Chambers Global 2008; Highly Recommended in the Global Competition Review 2007 and PLC Which Lawyer? 2007

At Cliffe Dekker, we value diversity and respect for the individual. We aspire to being a firm where men and women enjoy equal opportunities and treatment in relation to access to work, recruitment, promotion and remuneration, and where diversity is actively encouraged.

Our commitment to being a truly South African law firm is embodied in our transformation policy which underpins our values of respect for the individual and equal opportunity for all our people.

We are one of South Africa's most empowered large law firms and have earned the AAA empowerment rating - one of the highest transformation ratings achievable.

We make recruitment, vacation work and bursary decisions based on merit, without regard to race, religion, gender or any other classification.

At Cliffe Dekker, we believe in living our core values and investing in our communities so that we may make a meaningful difference to the communities where we live and do business. We are involved as a firm and as individuals in numerous pro bono and community initiatives.

Our Corporate Social Responsibility programmes range from pro bono legal assistance to taking care of the needs of children, especially those who have been orphaned through AIDS-related deaths in their families.

We provide legal assistance in the area of education and skills development, and assist in establishing and supporting schools in poor communities. Among many other initiatives we also provide pro bono legal services to recognised Law Society structures, organisations and individuals through giving advice, opinions and legal assistance to those that cannot ordinarily afford these services.