Catherine Warburton

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Catherine Warburton is our exclusively recommended Environmental Law expert in South Africa on the Advisory Excellence website. If you need assistance in this area, please contact Catherine directly using the contact details listed above.

Catherine has more than twenty years of practical experience in the relatively new field of sustainability law in South Africa. Her experience has been mainly developed across a broad spectrum of infrastructure development and mining projects.

She has also assisted NGO groups and government with legal advice and has provided input into governmental policy development in South Africa. Catherine has been involved in the environmental legal aspects of the Gautrain Project as specialist advisor since 2002 and has advised on a number of development projects and climate and energy related projects.

Whilst working as in-house Environmental Legal Counsel for Anglo American she completed a two and a half year international sustainable development training programme in 2001 entitled LEAD i.e. Leadership for the Environment and Development. In 2012 Catherine completed a Sustainability Reporting Course, certified by the Global Reporting Initiative.

In 2013 she completed the GRI Certified Course based on the G4 reporting guidelines. Catherine completed her dissertation for her Master of Laws at Wits University in 2014 with distinction. The title of her dissertation was, “Evaluating South African EIA processes in the context of the Gautrain Project”.

Catherine Warburton has developed specific expertise in the area of climate change. She has attended UNFCCC meetings as a South African business representative and has worked on greenhouse gas mitigation and reporting projects in South Africa.

She presents papers and training courses on a wide range of sustainability legal issues in South Africa. She provides strategic legal advice at the Board level, is currently advising on a number of mine closure projects and is acting in a criminal environmental prosecution.

Georges Desvaux

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Based in Johannesburg, Georges Desvaux is the McKinsey managing partner for Africa. From 2011 to 2015, he was the managing partner of Japan. He also worked in Beijing from 1999 to 2006, and Paris from 2006 to 2011. Georges is also a member of McKinsey’s Shareholders’ Council, the firm’s governing body.

In Japan, Georges supported retailers, financial institutions and technology companies on international growth, post-merger integration, marketing capabilities, customer satisfaction, lean operations, and organizational design.

He contributed regularly to forums and conferences focused on Japan’s prospects. With the McKinsey Global Institute, he recently authored perspectives on Japan’s long-term economic potential in “The Future of Japan: Reigniting Growth and Productivity” (March 2015.)

In Europe, Georges advised top management in insurance, banking and technology companies on growth and marketing, and in China, state-owned enterprises in market-oriented reforms and international IPOs.

Georges is a leader of our Marketing Practice and has authored articles and research on consumer and macroeconomic trends as well as building our Consumer Insights and Analytics capabilities.

Georges devotes much of his time and energy to developing McKinsey’s global talent and has initiated and co-led McKinsey’s “Women Matter” research on the role of women in corporations since 2007.

He joined McKinsey in 1988, after four years in sales at an industrial manufacturer.

Firm Overview:

McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that serves leading businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations, and not-for-profits. We help our clients make lasting improvements to their performance and realize their most important goals. Over nearly a century, we’ve built a firm uniquely equipped to this task.

Lee Mendelsohn

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Lee Mendelsohn is ENSafrica’s Chief Operating Officer. Prior to assuming her current role, Lee successfully headed the firm’s competition department since its establishment in 1998.

As COO, Lee oversees the running of ENSafrica’s firm-wide business support operations, including marketing, business intelligence, IT and finance.

Recognition:

  • Chambers and Partners Global Guide 2017, 2016, 2015 – Competition (South Africa)
  • IFLR1000 Financial and Corporate Guide 2017, 2016, 2015 – Leading Lawyer (South Africa)
  • The Legal 500 EMEA 2017, 2016, 2015 – Competition (South Africa)
  • Best Lawyers® 2017, 2016 – Competition/Anti-trust (South Africa)
  • Euromoney Expert Guides – Guide to the World’s Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers 2016 (South Africa)
  • Who’s Who Legal 2015 Expert – Competition (South Africa)

Qualifications:

  • BCom (University of the Witwatersrand)
  • LLB (cum laude) (University of the Witwatersrand)
  • Admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa
  • Admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales

Firm Overview:

What matters in today’s business environment are fast turnaround times and cost-effective solutions. ENSafrica is Africa’s largest law firm, with over 600 practitioners, and 100 years of experience in high-level, complex commercial work. The firm’s focus is on “what’s best for the client” and striving for excellence, in both offering and service. ENSafrica is committed to providing clients with cost-effective outcomes by ensuring work is done at the right level, and in the manner that best suits clients’ preferences and pricing structures.

Strategic Partner:

While many recognise the unique opportunities for trade, investment and growth that Africa represents, predicting in-country and across region risks is not easy, particularly given the rate of exponential change impacting multiple indicators, whether economic, political, technological or social. ENSafrica is an independent law firm with fully integrated offices across Southern, West and East Africa and Mauritius. The firm offers clients many years’ accumulated know-how and solid experience, whether doing business in-country or cross-continent, helping to minimise risk and leverage business opportunities across Africa.

ENSafrica has lawyers qualified to practise English, French and OHADA law, as well as practitioners who are fluent in African and international languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, French and Portuguese. The firm also has dedicated China and India practice groups, which focus on the African strategies of these countries.

Through the financial services centre of Mauritius, ENSafrica also offers a unique possibility to integrate all aspects of structuring clients’ investments in relation to all commercial areas of law, tax, IP and fiduciary.