The firm has snapped up a consultant lawyer with over 35 years of experience for its growing South Africa group.
Thomson Wilks has added Pieter van Welzen to its Johannesburg banking and finance team as a consultant lawyer. Van Welzen joined the firm this week from CMS South Africa, where he worked for the last six years as a senior banking and finance consultant.
Van Welzen focuses his work on complex financial transactional across Africa and Europe, with his remit including capital markets, funding platforms, derivatives, structured finance, cross-border lending and receivables financing.
He has over 35 years of experience advising a clientele of development finance institutions, banks, public authorities, corporates and investors, with a practice involving civil and common law systems, and has experience handling matters in English, Dutch, German, Portuguese and French.
Additionally, van Welzen brings expertise in public international law, the law of the sea and maritime issues to the firm’s development finance, commercial and infrastructure transactions.
Van Welzen started his legal career at Clifford Chance in 1990 before his transfer to an in-house role at coal trading company SHV in 1997, after which he joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 1998 and was promoted to partner over his eight years at the firm.
He returned to Clifford Chance as a partner in 2006 and left for CMS South Africa in 2020.
Thomson Wilks noted in a LinkedIn post that van Welzen’s arrival aligned with the firm’s blueprint for growth, specifically its decision to cherry pick cross-border experts, sector specialists and integrated teams, as opposed to the “limitations of a traditional law-firm model”.
Van Welzen added in his own LinkedIn post: “I will continue to be based in Johannesburg, advising clients on financing transactions and, more recently, public international law, with a particular focus on the law of the sea.”
Thomson Wilks expanded its South African team in January this year after merging with the former Durban office of Eversheds Sutherland.
The firm also added consultant lawyer Roux van der Merwe to its Johannesburg team from Schindlers Attorneys in May.
