Talita is a Employment and Data Protection specialist. Employment law is the one practice area in a corporate law firm where one works daily with various rights protected in the Bill of Rights – the right to equality, the right to fair labour practices, the right to privacy, the right to freedom of association, the right to human digtniy. This, together with the principle of fairness, is what drew me to employment law, and later data protection law,” says Talita.

Clients rely on her to provide practical, excellent advice – usually within fast turnaround times.When assisting a client with an employment problem, her approach is to listen with an open mind and provide options, which would differ according to the associated legal, business and employee relations risks. All these risks must be weighed up, and ultimately the client must be empowered to make the most informed decision possible.

In the employment law domain, she regularly advises on the employment consequences of commercial transactions, dismissals and the drafting of employment contracts. She is particularly interested in law of unfair discrimination and was part of the team who advised Business Unity South Africa on the amendments to the Employment Equity Act and the Regulations pertaining to equal pay which took effect in 2014. This interest in discrimination law was fostered through her exposure to foreign discrimination law, first as a participant in the International Human Rights Training Programme in Montreal, Canada, in 1996 and later as a student of Employment Discrimination and International Law at Emory, USA.

Talita is also at the forefront of data protection developments. Back in 2021, she and her team developed a Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) toolkit to enable employers to ensure compliance. However, her expertise on data protection extends beyond the employment relationship and she advises on all aspects of data protection.

Although many of the matters she deals with are time-sensitive, speed should not be at the expense of a quality solution. Talita is adept at maintaining the balance and at identifying circumstances where it is necessary to tread carefully and patiently rather than hastily.

Talita works with a team she describes as ‘brilliant’, while noting that the buck stops herself as the partner. She has acted as a judge in Labour Court, she is also a keen researcher and has published extensively. She co-authored Sibergramme’s Contracts of Employment with Chris Todd and contributes two chapters to Employment Equity Law, an academic textbook on employment equity, which is updated annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to employers, and through Talita’s involvement with the work of Business for South Africa (B4SA), she provided extensive guidance to employers through the various Alert Levels. She was intimately involved in the Nedlac processes, most notably the TERS benefit and advice pertaining to employers’ obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Directives. The issue of mandatory vaccinations in the workplace was a hot topic, and Talita and her team assisted various employers in developing their Workplace Plans to ensure compliance with the Directives.

Data protection law has been a focus of Talita’s practice for many years. Since around 2005, she upskilled in this field and was well-placed to assist clients with their data protection queries when, about 15 years later, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into force in 2021. She regularly assists clients with their notification requirements in the event of a data breach; she advises on the preparation of privacy notices, appropriate clauses in employment contracts, data processing agreements, the cross-border transfer of personal information, the preparation of compliance frameworks, registration of information officers, engagements with the Regulator and training initiatives for clients. Talita also works closely with her colleagues in M&A on data protection due diligences as part of corporate transactions.

Data breaches are a daily reality for many corporates – often as a result of human error, but more recently also due to cyber-attacks. Talita is well-positioned to guide clients through both their data protection and employment challenges as a result of security incidents.