Deneys Reitz joins Norton Rose Group
Deneys Reitz, a leading South African corporate law firm, today announced that it will be joining international legal practice Norton Rose Group on 1 June 2011. Canadian Law firm Ogilvy Renault will be joining Norton Rose Group at the same time. This follows the successful merger of Norton Rose Australia into Norton Rose Group earlier this year.
Together the enlarged Group will be a top 10 global legal practice by number of lawyers with more than 2500 lawyers in 38 offices worldwide.
Peter Martyr, Group Chief Executive, Norton Rose Group, commented:
“This is a very exciting move for the Group and constitutes a significant step towards realising the Group’s global ambition of becoming one of the world’s leading providers of legal services, with offices in the world’s principal business and financial centres.”
“Canada and South Africa are increasingly influential economies for our clients in the energy and natural resources, infrastructure, technology and financial institutions sectors. Deneys Reitz and Ogilvy Renault give the Group increased strength and depth of resource and expertise in these sectors. We are seeing a considerable increase in the amount of business flowing between Canada, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia; the enlarged Group will be ideally positioned to target this business growth and to provide our clients with the highest quality of legal services connecting these regions.”
Michael Hart, Chairman of Deneys Reitz, and Rob Otty, who will succeed him in March 2011, commented: “The combination of our years of experience in Africa and Norton Rose Group’s increasing involvement in African business will provide the Group with a springboard to become the premier legal practice in Africa. The global markets are increasingly interested in Africa, which is one of the world’s most rapidly growing economic regions. As part of Norton Rose Group, we expect to be at the forefront of developing Africa’s business ties with the rest of the world and in particular with Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas.”
The Managing Partner of Ogilvy Renault, John Coleman, and the Deputy Chairman of Deneys Reitz, Rob Otty, will join the Norton Rose Group’s Executive Committee.
