Brent Botha
Chief Executive Officer, South Africa
Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Inc
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Biography
Brent Botha is a corporate and commercial litigation lawyer, and the CEO of the South African practice.
He joined Norton Rose Fulbright in January 2005 as a candidate attorney and was retained as an associate in the firm's corporate and commercial litigation team in 2007. After three years he was promoted to director. He was a member of the South African Supervisory Board from September 2013 until August 2019 when, promoted to Disputes Practice Group Leader, he became a member of the South African office's Management Committee. Brent was head of the Professional Recruitment Committee – which oversees graduate recruitment and professional lateral hires in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – until December 2021, having been part of the committee for a decade, and having lead it for half that time.
Brent was the lead director in Bornman v National Credit Regulator (Supreme Court of Appeal, September 2013), iMvula Quality Protection (Pty) Ltd v Licinio Loureiro & Others (SCA, March 2013), and Loureiro & Others v iMvula Quality Protection (Pty) Ltd (Constitutional Court, March 2014), Talhado Fishing Enterprises (Pty) Ltd v FirstRand Bank Ltd t/a First National Bank (Gqeberha High Court, March 2023) and The Special Investigating Unit v Phomella Property Investments (Pty) Ltd and Rebosis Property Fund Ltd (SCA, April 2023). He was the lead associate in FirstRand Bank Ltd v National Lotteries Board (SCA, March 2008) and NCSPCA v Openshaw (SCA, May 2008).
On secondment to FirstRand Bank, Brent was the Acting Head of Group Legal from August 2016 until February 2017, while continuing to manage his litigation practice.
He is a non-executive director on the board of Section27.
Brent assumed the role of CEO on 1 October 2023.
He has been ranked by:
- Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyers;
- Who's Who Legal: Commercial Litigation.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Attorney, qualified in South Africa
- Advised the trustees of a Trust which is the investment arm of a large trade union in South Africa in acrimonious litigation involving allegations of conflicts of interest, mismanagement, regularisation of corporate issues and advice on beneficiary entitlements.
- Advised a South African bank on a successful application to freeze a bank account in circumstances of suspected fraud.
- Advised a South African bank against an individual who harassed senior management of a number of business units, the CEO of the retail bank and also executive and non-executive directors of the Bank's holding company.
- Advised a South African bank on a lengthy and acrimonious litigation (17 years) brought by an individual purportedly in pursuit of payment of a commission due to him. Aspects of the litigation including having the plaintiff declared a vexatious litigation, and ultimately sequestrating his estate (in consequence of unpaid costs orders). Engaged extensively with regulators and the press to whom information was leaked by the plaintiff during the course of the litigation.
- Advised a private security services Company on its Company structure and the de-registration of a Group Company.
- Advised a private security services Company on a combined contractual and delictual claim by a private home owner pursuant to an armed robbery. The security company, before our involvement, was found liable in the High Court, but we successfully appealed against that finding to the SCA, although the SCA's judgment was set aside by the Constitutional Court.
- Advised a national development finance institution which was set up to promote economic growth and industrial development in South Africa, under the supervision of the Economic Development Department.
- Advised a South African subsidiary of a global coal company in an application to perfect a notarial bond, and in litigation resisting a counter-claim.
- Advised the South African subsidiary of a Danish research-based pharmaceutical company (focussed on the Central Nervous System) resisting a claim in an arbitration by a former employee under a Benefits Policy.
- Part of the team advising a global management consulting company in matters of interest of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.
- Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyers;
- Who's Who Legal: Commercial Litigation.
He has been a speaker at anti-corruption compliance workshops, hosted by the International Bar Association, in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, at the IBA's invitation.
- English
- Afrikaans