History
Read Hope Phillips was constituted in its current form in 2003 and conducts business as a boutique corporate and commercial law firm from its Melrose Arch offices in Johannesburg. Read Hope Phillips has five areas of focus, namely:
- corporate mergers and acquisitions including listings, de-listings and private equity transactions
- public sector and project and development finance
- competition law
- High Court commercial litigation
- forensics.
Read Hope Phillips has, since its inception, advised on public market transactions in excess of R60 billion including some of the most complex and ground breaking public market transactions, private equity transactions, high profile empowerment transactions, contested take-over transactions and innovative listings in South Africa. Read Hope Phillips has consistently ranked in the top twenty legal advisers in the Ernst & Young annual survey of mergers and acquisitions in South Africa and has achieved recognition in the top ten in its first year of practice. If the figures are further analysed on the basis of the various firms’ number of partners, Read Hope Phillips ranked first and second respectively in the number of transactions and value of transactions per partner for that year.
The litigation practice group of Read Hope Phillips has assisted clients with large scale local and cross-border litigation matters including claims in excess of R1 billion, tender disputes, review applications and private company and state institution forensic investigations.
Read Hope Phillips has been at the forefront in assisting clients with competition matters ranging from merger filings to investigations and leniency applications.