L&E Global welcomes Webber Wentzel as its first member firm in Africa
More than 150 years of history, a highly ranked employment practice and genuine reach across the continent: L&E Global welcomes its first member firm in Africa.
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1868
Founded
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450+
Lawyers
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Tier 1
Legal 500, Employment
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First
Member firm in Africa
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Brussels/Johannesburg, 11 November 2026. L&E Global today announced that Webber Wentzel has joined as its exclusive member firm for South Africa, the first L&E Global member firm on the African continent. For the multinational clients of L&E Global, it means the same trusted employment law support they rely on in more than 80 countries, now in South Africa and, through Webber Wentzel’s reach, across Africa.
Webber Wentzel’s story began in 1868, in a small practice in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. The gold rush drew its founders to Johannesburg, where the firm grew up alongside the mining industry that shaped modern South Africa. Over more than 150 years, the firm has grown and changed with South Africa itself, working alongside the people and businesses shaping Africa. Those roots underpin a sector-focused approach, combining legal expertise with an understanding of the commercial and operational realities of industries including mining, financial services, energy, retail, healthcare, and technology, media and telecommunications. Today its more than 450 lawyers in Johannesburg and Cape Town reflect the many cultures and languages of the country and the continent they serve, supporting clients across Africa independently or alongside its established network of relationship firms.
Where workplace law meets industry
Webber Wentzel’s Employment & Employee Benefits group is highly ranked for its expertise in Employment Law by The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. The team advises on individual and collective employment law, employee benefits, incentive schemes, occupational health and safety and corporate immigration, on both contentious and advisory matters. Its lawyers appear before every employment forum in the country, from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the bargaining councils to the Labour Courts and the Constitutional Court. Clients range from multinationals and listed companies to state owned enterprises.
The firm’s relationship with L&E Global is led by Lizle Louw, Partner in Employment & Employee Benefits, who has been ranked by Chambers and Partners for seven years and is recognised as a Leading Partner by The Legal 500. She has served as an acting judge of the Labour Court of South Africa.
Lizle Louw |
“South African labour law is sophisticated, fast moving and deeply shaped by collective bargaining. A wage negotiation or a restructuring decision can move from the boardroom to the Labour Court remarkably quickly, so our clients need advisers who know that terrain intimately. Increasingly, they also need the same quality of advice in every other country where they operate. Joining L&E Global gives us a community of employment specialists we trust, and we are proud to be the firm that brings Africa into it.”
Lizle Louw · Partner, Employment & Employee Benefits, Webber Wentzel
“Africa is where many of our clients are writing their next chapter, and they have long asked us to be there with them. Webber Wentzel is exactly the partner we wanted for that step: a firm with deep roots, an outstanding employment practice and genuine reach across the continent. Our relationship has grown over several years and welcoming them is a real milestone for L&E Global.”
Jeroen Douwes · Executive Director of L&E Global
“For many multinational employers, South Africa is their gateway to the African market, and often the place where their workforce questions become most complex. Webber Wentzel is an established yet dynamic and growing firm, with the reach across the continent and the practical judgment to guide them through it. Its addition to L&E Global is an exciting step forward in how we serve clients worldwide.”
John Sander · Chairman of L&E Global and co-leader of the International Employment Issues practice group at Jackson Lewis P.C.
About Webber Wentzel
Webber Wentzel is a leading full-service African corporate law firm with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, advising clients across Africa on corporate law, dispute resolution, tax and other key practice areas. Its Employment & Employee Benefits team brings together four core service offerings: all aspects of employment and labour law, occupational health and safety, immigration, and pensions.
About L&E Global
L&E Global is the worldwide leader for cross-border labour and employment law services. L&E Global’s member firms are ideally situated to provide clients with pragmatic, commercial advice necessary to achieve their objectives, wherever they operate. L&E Global’s members work closely with corporate, legal, human resources departments and corporate executives across a variety of sectors and industries to address the strategic and tactical issues that arise in the workplace.
