South African-born Charlie Jacobs will take up the reigns of Senior Partner at global law firm, Linklaters with effect from 1 October 2016. Jacobs takes over from current Senior Partner Robert Elliott whose term at the helm ends this year.

Senior and Managing Partner team, Christo Els and Sally Hutton, of Webber Wentzel, add: “Charlie stands out in relation to his strong client centricity, inspirational leadership style and energy. As a fellow South African, he is a strong supporter of our firms' collaborative alliance and we're very excited to be taking our relationship with Linklaters forward under his, and Managing Partner, Gideon Moore's, leadership. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank current Senior Partner, Robert Elliott, for the strong relationship Webber Wentzel has enjoyed with Linklaters under his guidance, and for his invaluable role in supporting our joint clients over the last five years.  This is a very exciting time for our alliance as we strengthen our commitment to provide unrivalled support and expertise to our clients as they follow opportunities into Sub-Saharan Africa.” 

Charlie Jacobs joined Linklaters 26 years ago and has been with the firm throughout his career. He has worked on some of the largest M&A deals in the market, most recently for SAB Miller on its proposed acquisition by ABI InBev and Glencore on its acquisition of Xstrata. He has also recently acted on the listings of Metro Bank, Steinhoff and CMC Markets. Charlie is also a non-executive director of Fresnillo and Investec.