Lusanda Raphulu
Head of Dispute Resolution | Johannesburg
Contact
T: +27 11 669 9532
Overview
Known for being well organised and well prepared, Lusanda is also flexible and adaptable – attributes that become apparent when the unexpected lands on her desk. She is invariably calm and collected, which clients and team members alike find reassuring, particularly when there is a contentious employment matter to deal with.
Much of Lusanda’s work involves transactional support, dealing with the employment law consequences of commercial transactions and corporate restructurings. She regularly handles employment investigations concerning allegations of fraud, racial discrimination, sexual harassment and the like, and does a significant amount of work on separations with senior executives, as well as in relation to retrenchments, redundancies, unfair dismissal matters and unfair labour practices.
She is a director of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) pro bono company, which is the company responsible for the pro bono clinics that provide free employment law services to indigent individuals at the various Labour Courts in South Africa. Lusanda has sat as an acting judge at the Labour Courts in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.
She has written articles on employment law that have been published in local and international publications and has spoken at employment law conferences in South Africa and abroad.
Technically able and personable, she has a talent for pulling together effective teams, often across multiple jurisdictions, that deliver the best results for clients. Her leadership style has been described as inclusive and she is a good listener with the ability to assimilate both the detail and the essence of a discussion and to translate this into usable legal solutions.
Professional Memberships:
- Lusanda heads up the Africa Middle East (AMEA) region of the Employment Law Alliance, a worldwide network of employment lawyers.
Experience
Jurisdictions worked in/for: South Africa; Kenya; Nigeria; Senegal; the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom; France; Germany, the United States; Zimbabwe; Mauritius; Cameroon; Ethiopia.
- Lusanda has advised on the employment law aspects of a number of significant commercial transactions, including:
- Ardagh Group SA in relation to an acquisition of Consol Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Africa’s leading producer of glass packaging; and
- MTN in relation to the sale of 50% of the issued shares held in aYo Holdings to Sanlam and the subscription by MTN and Sanlam for further shares in the company.
- Lusanda regularly manages projects for multi-jurisdictional employers, working together with lawyers in other countries to give clients consolidated employment law support across various African jurisdictions. Clients find this “one stop shop” approach beneficial, efficient, and seamless in terms of the consistency of the quality of the legal advice given, as well as how the advice is packaged for the client.
- Lusanda runs complex multi-facetted investigations, often spanning across various legal areas and needing multi-disciplinary teams.
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Qualifications
- University of KwaZulu-Natal, BSocSci.
- University of the Witwatersrand, LLB.
- University of Oxford, Said Business School programme on Leading Professional Service Firms.
INSIGHTS
Overview
Known for being well organised and well prepared, Lusanda is also flexible and adaptable – attributes that become apparent when the unexpected lands on her desk. She is invariably calm and collected, which clients and team members alike find reassuring, particularly when there is a contentious employment matter to deal with.
Much of Lusanda’s work involves transactional support, dealing with the employment law consequences of commercial transactions and corporate restructurings. She regularly handles employment investigations concerning allegations of fraud, racial discrimination, sexual harassment and the like, and does a significant amount of work on separations with senior executives, as well as in relation to retrenchments, redundancies, unfair dismissal matters and unfair labour practices.
She is a director of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) pro bono company, which is the company responsible for the pro bono clinics that provide free employment law services to indigent individuals at the various Labour Courts in South Africa. Lusanda has sat as an acting judge at the Labour Courts in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.
She has written articles on employment law that have been published in local and international publications and has spoken at employment law conferences in South Africa and abroad.
Technically able and personable, she has a talent for pulling together effective teams, often across multiple jurisdictions, that deliver the best results for clients. Her leadership style has been described as inclusive and she is a good listener with the ability to assimilate both the detail and the essence of a discussion and to translate this into usable legal solutions.
Professional Memberships:
- Lusanda heads up the Africa Middle East (AMEA) region of the Employment Law Alliance, a worldwide network of employment lawyers.
Experience
Jurisdictions worked in/for: South Africa; Kenya; Nigeria; Senegal; the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom; France; Germany, the United States; Zimbabwe; Mauritius; Cameroon; Ethiopia.
- Lusanda has advised on the employment law aspects of a number of significant commercial transactions, including:
- Ardagh Group SA in relation to an acquisition of Consol Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Africa’s leading producer of glass packaging; and
- MTN in relation to the sale of 50% of the issued shares held in aYo Holdings to Sanlam and the subscription by MTN and Sanlam for further shares in the company.
- Lusanda regularly manages projects for multi-jurisdictional employers, working together with lawyers in other countries to give clients consolidated employment law support across various African jurisdictions. Clients find this “one stop shop” approach beneficial, efficient, and seamless in terms of the consistency of the quality of the legal advice given, as well as how the advice is packaged for the client.
- Lusanda runs complex multi-facetted investigations, often spanning across various legal areas and needing multi-disciplinary teams.
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