Leading South African law firm Adams & Adams has appointed Nolwazi Gcaba as a partner in its Trade Mark Practice.

“Nolwazi brings with her a wealth of experience in the area of intellectual property, and is highly-regarded in the trade mark profession. We are delighted to welcome on board a colleague who bolsters the expertise of Adams & Adams,” says Gérard du Plessis, chairman of Adams & Adams.

Nolwazi  joins Adams & Adams from Spoor & Fisher, where she was a partner and also served as chairperson of the firm from 2012 to 2013.

It’s a full circle for the trade mark and litigation specialist who, prior to joining Spoor & Fisher in 1999 and following the completion of her LLB at the University of Natal, joined IP law firm John & Kernick where she completed her articles in 1997.  The firm then merged with Bowman Gilfillan becoming their IP department – which was in turn acquired by Adams & Adams in 2012. 

Nolwazi is a member of the Standing Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights and a member of the Council of the Institute of Intellectual Property Lawyers. She was a non-executive director of Transnet from 2004 to 2011.

Adams & Adams has practices in Commercial law, Property law, Litigation law, and is the largest Intellectual Property (IP) firm in Africa.

The firm is consistently ranked among the best law firms in the country, and was recently named as the Best IP Law Firm in South Africa at the prestigious Managing IP Global Awards 2014 held in London.

Adams & Adams has been rooted in over 100 years of legal excellence since its founding in 1908. The firm currently has 68 partners and a further professional complement of over 110 experienced attorneys and candidate attorneys, with offices in South Africa (Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban), and associate offices in Mozambique (ARIPO), Angola, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Burundi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and an OAPI office based in Cameroon. It also has a world-wide network of attorney correspondents enabling the firm to handle intellectual property and legal matters in any country.