As the firm continues to reinforce its bench strength and expertise in key areas to drive its growth strategy, it today announced the appointment of Insurance Regulatory Law specialist, Juanita Moolman as a partner in its Financial Regulatory practice with effect from 1 April 2016.

Juanita’s appointment builds on a number of other strategic lateral partner hires in the last year in the Corporate practice including, most recently, the addition of Leslie de Bruyn from Ashurst in Australia in January 2016, and prior to that, Gareth Driver, Mark Phillips, Adam Ismail and Huneiza Goolam. In the Tax practice, the firm welcomed Brian Dennehy, and in its Finance practice, Muhammad Sader, Shaun Browne, Mike Mclaren and Tahera Cassim.

"This fortifies the firm's vision of providing innovative and integrated solutions to our clients’ most complex legal and tax matters," says Christo Els, Senior Partner at Webber Wentzel.

He adds: “Client centricity is at the forefront of all that we do at Webber Wentzel, and continually bolstering capacity and expertise will ensure that we continue to deliver superior client service."

Juanita's appointment is particularly relevant to the firm's strategic approach to keep pace with the fast growing financial services sector, which demands senior, experienced counsel. “Our focus is on building the skills, diversity and capacity of our financial regulatory practice to strengthen our competitiveness to effectively respond to the growing demand of the sector. We are pleased to have Juanita on board to complement and reinforce our team of financial regulatory experts,” says Els.

Juanita brings a wealth of experience spanning 16 years in the highly specialised field of insurance regulatory law. She joins Webber Wentzel from Hollard Insurance, where she served as Head of Legal for five years. Prior to that, Juanita worked for the Professional Provident Society (PPS) and she has also held legal advisor positions at Sage Financial and at Sanlam's Estate and Trusts unit.

Through her work, Juanita has built strong relationships with regulatory agencies such as the Financial Services Board (FSB) and other key financial services industry bodies. She is well experienced in drafting and submitting applications and notifications to the FSB, a skill and expertise that will add great value to Webber Wentzel's Financial Regulatory team.

"I am excited to join the highly skilled team of financial regulatory experts at Webber Wentzel. I believe that regulatory changes will dominate the financial services landscape in South Africa for the next few years, and I look forward to assisting our clients to respond to these changes," says Juanita.

Submitted by Webber Wentzel