ABOUT ME

I am an experienced media and technology lawyer with a considerable track record at leading technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies across the world. I gets my kicks from new technology and the changing world around us.

After being admitted as a solicitor of England and Wales in 2008, I moved from South Africa to the UK where I spent valuable years working as a Media Lawyer first for Classic Media – one of the world’s largest entertainment companies working on well-known family and pop-culture brands, such as Casper, Basil Brush, Postman Pat, Where’s Waldo? – and then for The Walt Disney Company as a Channel Lawyer for their Jetix channel (now DisneyXD) which was made available across Europe.

Upon returning to South Africa, I joined Viacom as sole legal counsel for their Africa business, which distributed the MTV, VH1, MTV Base, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET channels across Sub-Saharan Africa. This was without a doubt one of my most fun roles as I worked on major projects such as the MTV Africa Music Awards, taking Dora and Boots to kids across Africa and launching the very first African localised version of Comedy Central.

Thereafter, I joined the TMT department of Werksmans Attorneys where I gained considerable experience in the regulatory aspects of TMT in Africa, in particular the lobbying of regulatory bodies around issues of digital migration, competition law, sports rights and consumer protection.

Having gained this valuable experience, I took my knowledge of traditional tv across to the world of OTT/VOD. When PCCW Global (Hong Kong’s number 1 pay TV, mobile, broadband and fixed line operator) was searching for an expert media lawyer for their very first OTT project, I was an obvious choice. With my legal support, the business was able to launch their first white label OTT service within a record 9 months.

When I relocated to Dubai, I joined “iflix” (a Malaysian based video on demand service that was recently acquired by Tencent) as their Business and Legal Affairs Manager for Asia, Africa and MENA. Now more recently, I have been working with “OSN” (MENA’s biggest pay tv and video on demand operator) as Senior Legal Counsel where I am responsible for the negotiation of all studio rights, programme acquisitions, original productions, distribution agreements and technology matters.

I believe that a good TMT lawyer needs to have an in-depth knowledge of the technology and media behind such industries and should constantly strive to keep up-to-date on the latest developments and innovations. Its likely that on most days you will find me in the CTO’s office picking their brain on the latest industry innovations.

Strong communication and negotiation skills are my strengths and together with my excellent drafting skills and knowledge of commercial and corporate law I have made myself a memorable team member in all the TMT companies that I have worked in.

WHAT I DO

PRACTICE AREAS

A lot of my recent work focuses on new media and technology developments, such as the OTT/VOD services, internet, mobile telephony, data protection and privacy laws and e-commerce matters. With the rise of the internet giants, TMT is the area of law that is arguably undergoing the biggest boom. The phenomenal growth of the internet and cutting-edge next-generation technologies means that I am constantly faced with new and unique legal issues and business questions. That being said, my areas of practice can be grouped into the below areas of the law. With the development of the mobile phones, broadband internet and governments, institutions and companies now investing in technology more than ever this is definitely an exciting area of law to be associated with and expect that these practice areas will only grow and evolve in the near future.

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