Nomsa Radebe
Director · Commercial
Admitted 2006. Supply and distribution agreements, B-BBEE ownership structures, and the manufacturing contracts that end up in arbitration.
BCom LLB (Wits) · Admitted attorney of the High Court
04 — The firm
Eleven people. No departments.
Hadley & Baxendale was formed in 2011 by two attorneys who had both left larger firms for the same reason: the work they were good at kept being handed to somebody else.
Directors
Four, and one of them is yours.
Willem de Kock
Director · Agriculture and property
Admitted 2009. Offtake agreements, farm transactions, water use entitlements, and family trusts that have outlived their drafters.
LLB (UFS) · Admitted attorney · Conveyancer
Priya Naidoo
Director · Technology and IP
Admitted 2012. Licensing, POPIA, IP audits before investment rounds, and enterprise terms that survive a bank procurement review.
LLB LLM Intellectual Property (UCT)
Tom Baxendale
Director · Dispute resolution
Admitted 2004. Commercial litigation and arbitration, urgent applications, and the restraints that have to be enforced within a fortnight.
BA LLB (Rhodes) · Admitted attorney of the High Court
How we work
Four things we hold to.
No departments
Eleven people on one floor. The director who drafts your agreement is the one who argues about it two years later, which concentrates the mind at the drafting stage.
We turn work away
A matter outside the five sectors goes to a firm that does it every week, and we will name that firm. We would rather be the second call you make than the wrong first one.
Counsel where counsel is worth it
We brief advocates for the matters that need them and we tell you what it costs before we do. We do not brief out work to make a file look busier.
The bad news arrives early
A weak clause, a claim worth settling, a case we would not take to trial. You will hear it in the first week rather than in month eight, when it costs more to hear.
Your money, while we hold it
It never becomes ours.
Held in trust
Money held on a transaction sits in a trust account governed by the Legal Practice Act. It is not an asset of this firm and no creditor of ours can reach it.
Invested on request
Deposits held for any length of time go into a separate interest-bearing account in your name. The interest is yours, less the statutory share to the Fidelity Fund.
Audited every year
By an independent auditor, with the report going to the Legal Practice Council. Ask for a statement of your balance whenever you want one.
Come and ask us what we are not good at.
It is a better question than the other one, and we will answer it.