NORTONS INC
OUR TEAM
Meet Our Team Below
Our highly qualified and professional team strives to provide a top-quality service in every project we undertake and takes a personalised approach to each matter with a view to meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of our clients.
Both the firm and several of our individual team members have been nominated and ranked as leaders in their various fields by, inter alia, Chambers Global, Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, Best Lawyers, and Global Competition Review.
ANTHONY NORTON
Prior to co-founding Nortons, Anthony was formerly the head of the competition law department at Webber Wentzel. His principal areas of practice are South African and African competition law and competition litigation, as well as white-collar crime, general litigation, and regulatory advice.
He was the first South African competition law practitioner to appear before the South African Competition Appeal Court. Anthony has experience in merger notifications, merger interventions, and applications for advisory opinions in relation to mergers and acquisitions.
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ANTON ROETS
Anton is one of the founding members of Nortons and previously worked with Anthony as a partner in the competition law department of Webber Wentzel.
Anton started practising competition law in 2000 and has been involved in a number of the seminal South African competition law cases including the Constitutional Court’s decisions in relation to the definition of control and the scope of the Commission’s powers of investigation, as well as the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decisions in relation to the lawfulness of the Commission’s leniency policy and whether leniency applications are privileged.
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PAUL RUSSELL
Paul is a founding director of Nortons. He advises on a range of regulatory issues, including South African and African competition law including in relation to merger control, joint ventures, dawn raids, and cartel investigations, prohibited practices, corporate leniency applications, horizontal and vertical restrictive practices, abuse of dominance, and applications for exemptions and interim relief, as well as the criminal provisions under the Competition Act, healthcare and telecommunications regulation, consumer protection and commercial and general litigation.
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WARWICK RADFORD
Having served his articles at Moss Morris Attorneys, Warwick spent three years as a general corporate and commercial associate at Allan Levin & Associates.
He subsequently joined the competition law practice group of Webber Wentzel, where he worked for three-and-a-half years in the position of associate and, later, senior associate. Warwick joined Nortons as a director in January 2010.
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MICHELLE RAWLINSON
Formerly a partner at Webber Wentzel, Michelle joined Nortons in 2011, initially as a director and then as a consultant for a number of years before resuming the role of director in 2022. She advises clients on various aspects of public regulatory law and litigation, particularly in relation to constitutional and administrative law matters, as well as white-collar crime and corruption investigations.
Michelle has also been involved in various competition law matters, including in relation to various market inquiries initiated by the Competition Commission, and has represented clients before various regulators and commissions of inquiry.
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NICOLA ILGNER
Nicola’s practice focus is on South African and African competition law and regulation. She advises major South African and international clients on competition law, and her experience extends to numerous sectors, with a specific focus on the consumer goods, construction and energy sectors.
Nicola’s principal area of practice is competition law, in particular cartel investigations and abuse of dominance matters. She regularly advises clients on specific commercial strategies and projects, supply chain considerations and e-commerce projects from a competition law perspective.
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AVIAS NGWENYA
Avias is a competition economist and has been the in-house economist at Nortons since 2013. Prior to joining Nortons, Avias was an economist at the Competition Commission from 2010 to 2013 where he led investigations and produced expert reports in respect of various
antitrust-related investigations.
Avias also provided economic analysis and advice to various government departments during his time at the Competition Commission.
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NICCI VAN DER WALT
Nicci has been practising competition law since 2007 and joined Nortons in 2010.
Her principal area of practice is in South African competition law, in particular, merger control and notification, and advising on the notifiability of mergers in South Africa, as well as other sub-Saharan and African jurisdictions (including COMESA, Botswana, eSwatini, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). Nicci has also been involved in conducting competition law reviews or audits and reporting on competition law compliance.
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MELISSA STEELE
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Melissa joined Nortons in 2017. Her preferred areas of practice include general commercial law, constitutional and administrative law, and all aspects of competition law.
Melissa has been involved in matters before numerous courts including the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Competition Appeal Court and the Competition Tribunal.
NINA GREYLING
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Since joining Nortons in 2019, Nina has been involved in several high-profile competition law matters, including assisting clients in relation to contested and complex merger proceedings, as well as a range of merger related matters.
She has also assisted various clients in relation to corporate leniency applications to the Commission, cartel investigations, resisting excessive pricing complaints and other allegations of abuses of dominance.