Marianne is the head of our antitrust and competition team, as well as the South African life sciences and healthcare practice, based in Johannesburg.

She is experienced in competition and trade law and has significant experience in a variety of regulatory matters and investigations.

Marianne has been ranked in the field of competition law in various top international publications, including Legal500 and Chambers Global. She has been named as one of the top 40 under 40 antitrust lawyers and economists globally by GCR.  Chambers Global gives Marianne "strong recognition for her competition law practice, with clients noting her "good communication skills and on-the-ball approach." She is also listed as a recommended competition lawyer in Legal500. Marianne has been chosen as one of Financier Worldwide's POWER PLAYERS: Competition & Antitrust 2020 - Future Stars and is listed as 'outstanding lawyer' on the Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers database.

Marianne focuses on abuse of dominance and cartel investigations, including applications for corporate leniency, dawn raids and subsequent search and seizure litigation and settlement negotiations.

As a leading expert, Marianne contributed to a chapter on merger control in South Africa for Global Legal Insights 2021; and has provided a comparative analysis of European merger regulation in an exclusive chapter in the 2014 International Economic Law and African Development guide. The chapter deals with the jurisdiction of the COMESA Competition Commission for merger transactions.

Marianne advises clients in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania, particularly in the healthcare, financial services, information technology, agriculture, construction and mining industries.

She has assisted clients to obtain clearance in several large, complex merger transactions in South Africa and other African jurisdictions. Since inception of the merger regulations by the COMESA Competition Commission she has advised clients trading in the region on merger filings.

Marianne regularly designs and implements training programmes and competition law compliance audits for clients, as well as dawn raid readiness. She has particular experience in designing compliance programmes for industry associations.

She also advises clients in proceedings before regulators such as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) with regards to licensing and other regulatory issues.

Marianne is regularly invited to address key competition law conferences and is frequently asked to comment in the media on topical competition law issues.

She obtained a master's degree in Commercial Law from the University of South Africa, cum laude, after obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree (majoring in law) and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Stellenbosch. She was also recently awarded a certificate in Advanced International Trade Law, cum laude, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg School of Law. Marianne is a member of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces.