On 28 July 2026, Linklaters and Webber Wentzel announced that their alliance will conclude in November, ending a 13-year arrangement between the UK and South African headquartered firms.
The alliance went live in 2013, though the relationship long predates it. “Our relationship with Linklaters spans more than half a century, and we hold the firm and its people in the highest regard,” said Gareth Driver, Webber Wentzel’s senior partner. The exclusive alliance included lawyer secondments, joint training and shared business development.
In a joint statement the firms said that “As their respective strategies have evolved, they have jointly agreed that they can best serve their clients by returning to the more informal structure that characterised their relationship before the alliance”. Linklaters says it will keep serving African clients through long-standing regional relationships and its global network.
It is the fourth exit from a South African office or alliance by a global law firm in under two years. A&O Shearman announced in September 2024 that it would close its Johannesburg office, opened in 2014 with a team recruited from Bowmans, shedding 32 lawyers including eight partners. The closure came four months after the May 2024 merger of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling, and formed part of a restructuring that cut roughly a tenth of the partnership.
Hogan Lovells announced its Johannesburg closure a week later, ending a South African venture that had to be reset once before: its 2013 combination with Routledge Modise unravelled in August 2019 when 71 lawyers left to form an independent firm.
Norton Rose Fulbright followed in November 2025, separating from its 120-lawyer South African practice, spread across Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban with effect from 31 March 2026. Four months earlier, in July 2025, the firm had folded its Australian partnership into its Europe, Middle East and Asia business. Each international law firm office closure came within months of a merger or a global restructuring.
A substantial international contingent remains. White & Case, Baker McKenzie, DLA Piper, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Eversheds Sutherland, Pinsent Masons, Clyde & Co, CMS and Fasken all maintain South African offices, most of them in the financial centre of Johannesburg.
According to one law firm managing partner, speaking on background, for global firms with integrated profit pools, South African fee rates are often not high enough to sustain desired profit margins. On the other hand, the jurisdiction has been an attractive base for lower cost delivery centres.
Herbert Smith Freehills has run an alternative legal services centre in Johannesburg since 2017, doing document review and due diligence. Pinsent Masons opened a Cape Town legal services centre in January 2026, set up to serve international clients. Alternative legal service provider Cognia Law has a delivery centre in Cape Town. South Africa is in a favourable time zone to work with law firm offices and clients based in London or elsewhere in Europe.
The league tables show how dominant domestic firms continue to be on high value work. According to the South African corporate finance publication DealMakers, from 2016 to 2025, the “big five” domestic law firms – Webber Wentzel, Bowmans, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, ENS and Werksmans – advised on between 72% and 92% of M&A deals by value in every year. International firms are credited on just a tenth of deal value on average. In DealMakers’ General Corporate Finance (GCF) ranking, which covers share issues, repurchases, restructurings and listings, international law firms’ share of value has stayed below 8% in each of the past five years.
Webber Wentzel dominates both tables. It led M&A by value in four of the past five years and led GCF by value in all five years from 2021 to 2025.
It also won a mandate on the largest deal of recent years. The $53bn Anglo American-Teck mining company merger, announced on 9 September 2025, is the second-largest M&A deal in South African history. Webber Wentzel is acting for Anglo American alongside Latham & Watkins, while Teck is advised by Wachtell, Freshfields and Stikeman Elliott.
Linklaters is not advising alongside its alliance partner on this deal. It does, however, have a long record with Anglo American, and led on its $11bn demerger of a majority stake in Valterra Platinum in June 2025, in the run-up to the Teck merger.
Other significant deals for Linklaters include advising the underwriters on Optasia’s R6.5bn (c. $345mn) listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa’s largest IPO of 2025.
