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Andrew Weeks

Andrew Weeks (BA LLB) - ASSOCIATE
Email: andrew@michalsons.com
Cell: 072 530 6116

Andrew is an Associate at Michalsons and an experienced commercial attorney. His main focus is plain legal language contracts and audits, especially for financial services and technology companies. He also has particular experience of privacy law.

Andrew favours a practical approach to commercial legal advice and agreements. He became passionate about plain legal language while working in the UK, and has since made it his mission to educate clients about the legal, business and marketing benefits of well-drafted documents. He was recently interviewed on national radio on this topic.

After studying law in Johannesburg, Andrew worked for several years as a legal consultant in London. Here he gained experience in IT procurement, biotechnology, and the music industry, and was also involved in capital raising efforts for an early internet startup.

Andrew moved to the legal advisory division of Maitland, the London firm linked to SA law firms Shepstone & Wylie and Webber Wentzel. He worked on general corporate & commercial matters, vessel finance, cross-border litigation, tax and intellectual property. He also advised a global software group and its US users on the 1995 EU data protection (privacy) directive.

Returning to South Africa, Andrew joined Cape Town firm Findlay & Tait, which was part of Maitland but has since merged with Bowman Gilfillan. Here he continued with general commercial work, and maintained an interest in data protection, advising a global accounting firm on this area for a new e-commerce project.

Andrew’s interest in ‘no frills’ law led him to start his own advisory business offering commercial legal advice and agreements in plain language. One of his early clients was a major UK-listed financial services group for whom he drafted a privacy policy and website legal terms. He has also drafted agreements for an online image library, and most recently advised on copyright & other legal issues for archive digitisation projects.

Education

• BA degree in Economics, Philosophy & English - Stellenbosch University - 1988
• LLB (Bachelor of Laws) degree - University of the Witwatersrand - 1991
• LLM (Master of Laws) degree ICT Law - University of Cape Town - to complete end 2010

Experience

• GISS - Legal & business consultant - 1992 to 1996
• Maitland (Shepstone & Wylie UK) - Associate lawyer – 1997 to 1999
• Bowman Gilfillan (Findlay & Tait) - Candidate/ Attorney – 2000 to 2001
• Tenet Legal Consulting - Legal adviser - 2002 to the present

Professional

• Attorney & Notary of the High Court of South Africa (Cape Provincial Division)
• Member, Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope

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