DLA Piper announces the appointment of a Director to its Johannesburg office. Phila Zulu joins the firm's Finance team on 1 July 2026. 

Phila advises on complex, multi-jurisdictional finance matters with a specialisation in credit derivatives, debt capital markets, securitisation, banking & finance, and general corporate law. His experience includes working on EU, UK, and US securities law (Reg. S and Rule 144A) transactions.
DLA Piper has also announced three promotions in its Corporate, Finance, and Tax practices in its Johannesburg office. Associates Christoph Berndt, Hemlata Singh and Leratorato Madiba have all been promoted to Senior Associate.

• Christoph specialises in the tax structuring of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He also regularly provides advice on tax-related warranty and indemnity insurance, VAT, exchange control, and international tax matters.
• Hemlata has advises clients on a wide range of domestic and cross-border financing transactions. Her focus areas include leveraged and acquisition financing, real estate financing, preference share funding, corporate financing and debt restructurings.
• Leratorato advises local and multi-national clients on equity capital markets, public and private M&A, private equity, as well as general corporate and commercial law. She has worked with clients in a variety of sectors, including financial services, consumer goods, food & retail, renewable energy and mining and infrastructure.

The Tax practice has also appointed a new Senior Associate, Diwan Kamoetie. Diwan has experience in international and domestic M&A tax, private equity, and exchange control.

Johannes Gouws, Country Managing Partner, South Africa, commented: “We remain committed to growing our Johannesburg office in a deliberate and client-focused way. Our recent hires and promotions ensure that we continue to meet rising client demands with the right expertise."

To advance its growth strategy in South Africa, DLA Piper has recently strengthened its team with the appointment of directors Patrick Leyden (Corporate); and Melusi Dlamini (Projects). The firm has also recently promoted Corporate director Brian Malcomess to global partnership and appointed Annie Nair, a senior associate in the Corporate practice.