Environmental Law

Overview

Environmental Law is a highly specialised field in which Cliffe Dekker offers extremely skilled and practical advice. The department is staffed by a Director, two part-time Associates and a Candidate Attorney. The head of the department, Terry Winstanley, has been rated by the Practical Law Company as leading Environmental lawyer in South Africa.

Our environment law practice has extensive experience in legal compliance, due diligence investigations, ISO 14001 implementation, environmental impact assessments, environmental litigation and legislative drafting. Its clients are drawn from the energy, petrochemicals, pulp and paper, mining and manufacturing sectors, as well from government in all three spheres in South Africa and elsewhere in the region.

Our Services

Compliance Advice

We offer practical and focused advice on all areas of environmental legal compliance. Where clients are not in compliance with the law, we advise on methods for achieving that compliance within realistic time frames.

Due Diligence Investigations

Environmental concerns are increasingly important in mergers and acquisitions. This is particularly so given the environmental legal regime in South Africa which creates retrospective and strict liability in some circumstances. Our team, working in conjunction with scientists and environmental consultants, is able to distinguish areas of genuine concern from non-material issues and to assess their implications for a deal.

ISO 14001

Increasingly, customers of our clients are demanding independently audited and accredited environmental management systems. We have extensive expertise in the implementation of ISO 14001 accredited environmental management systems and have experience in independently auditing those systems from a legal perspective.

Environmental Impact Assessments

These play a central role in many developments. We are able to guide the process to ensure legal compliance with all the requirements of the EIA process to make it is as defensible as possible and unlikely to be vulnerable to attack on appeal or review. Where clients are against a development we are able to assist in opposing it through the environmental impact assessment process.

Environmental Litigation

We have extensive experience in environmental litigation in various divisions of the High Court in South Africa.

Legislative drafting

Our team has drafted laws for SADC, national governments within the SADC region and provincial and local government authorities in South Africa. We therefore have firsthand knowledge of legal requirements in many jurisdictions and are skilled at translating government clients' instructions into workable, practical and easily understood legislation.

What others say about us

The Practical Law Company PLC Which Lawyer? 2004 to 2008 has rated Terry Winstanley as leading lawyer in South Africa. The Cross Border Environmental Law Handbook describes her as "the doyenne of environmental law in South Africa".

For further information or assistance please contact: