So, legally speaking, what can you do to help get the most out of social media and govern its risks ? Broadly speaking there are four key areas that you need to monitor:

• What are people saying about you?
• What are you saying about yourself ?
• Your online identity
• Controlling the use of social media within your organisation.

But how does one go about doing this? Conducting a Social  Media  Audit can you help identify areas where you are exposed, as well as  steps you can take to improve you position online. Does your organization have its own twitter page, or facebook profile?  Have other people registered these profiles?  Do you  have a policy in place to regulate how and when your employees may use social media? The Social Media Audit will answer these questions and more, and give you an action plan of what steps you need to take.

For further information please contact info@michalsonsattorneys.com

We often get shown two web sites (the original and the copy) and asked “What can we do?“.  Well each case is different and needs to be judged on its merits.  The copying could amount of many things.  Some examples are:

1. copyright infringement
2. trade mark infringement
3. cybersquatting (when a domain name is involved)
4. unlawful competition
5. breach of contract (this is only applicable if the infringer agreed to your terms and conditions and then acted in breach of them)

Your remedies could include:

• institute proceedings against the infringer under the Copyright Act 98 of 1978
• apply for urgent interdictory relief in order to protect your rights
• take action for a breach of contract and claim damages
• lay a complaint of an abusive domain name registration
• claim damages
• institute any other proceedings available in law

Possible approaches (or courses of action) to resolve the dispute are:

• Meet the infringer to discuss it
• Call the infringer
• Send the infringer a friendly email
• Get an attorneys to send a threatening Letter of Demand (cease and desist letter) on an attorney’s letterhead by email and registered post

It is often tempting to send the Letter of Demand (the lawyers letter), but this is not always the quickest way to resolve the dispute.  Sometimes the other approaches can be better.  We can advise you on the best way forward.  We can also send the Letter of Demand.

John Giles of Michalsons Attorneys will be a guest speaker at the event.  He will be giving his presentation on the 17 March 2010 from 09h15 - 11h00. His segments are titled:

• Beware of the Privacy and Protection of Personal Information laws that apply to your organisation, and
• How does the new bill affect direct marketing?

You can register here or contact Thomas Danielsson for more info.

1. privacy,
2. the protection of personal information,
3. data collection, and
4. information management.

We have prepared written submissions for several clients in response to the Protection of Personal Information Bill.

Our clients include:

• marketers,
• retailers,
• financial institutions,
• health care providers,
• industry bodies,
• directory providers,
• and many others.

We offer the following privacy and protection of personal information services in line with our view that compliance is a process.  Each step leads to the next.

Be aware of the issues and applicable law

We can help you to be aware of and learn about the protection of personal information and the law that requires it.  We do this by:

1. conducting a seminar called How will the PPI Bill affect you?
2. providing online legal guidance on privacy and the protection of personal information on Online Legal….

We make you aware by applying our experience and knowledge to your specific circumstances.

Assess, determine the gap, and find solutions

We can help you to:

1. Identify the sections of the PPI Bill that are relevant to you
2. Determine the impact of the PPI Bill on your business
3. Determine your factual situation by mapping your activities concerning personal information
4. Identify the role players
5. Classify the data subjects
6. Focus on the activities that are critical to your business
7. Prioritise your next steps
8. Fast track your privacy compliance efforts
9. Get clarity on where you are and where you need to be
10. Determine where you currently are with regard to privacy ‘maturity’ when assessed against the PPI Bill
11. Determine the gap between your reality and compliance (usually a gap analysis)
12. Determine whether there is anything you should be doing in preparation for the enactment of the PPI Bill
13. Find solutions to fill the gap - determining what solutions you need
14. Reduce the overall cost of compliance because you can do much of the work

We do this by conducting a privacy impact assessment.  We use various tools, like a privacy program tool, to conduct the assessment.  Through the assessment you either get assurance that you comply or we help you to find solutions to ensure that you comply.  We will also point you to material that you can read to get up to speed.

Implement solutions

We can help you implement solutions.   Implementing the solutions can involve the following:

1. Formulate, draft or revise your privacy policy
2. Providing you with a new template document through Online Legal…  For example, a Online Privacy Policy template
3. Help manage your relationships with the people for whom you process personal information and the people who process your personal information
4. Prepare appropriate contract provisions - the PPI Bill requires that certain terms be included in certain agreements
5. Draft standard responses to customers and prospects
6. Draft or revise your Access to Information Manual
7. Provide legal opinions on various privacy and protection of personal information issues (for example, on the interpretation or application of the law)
8. Provide training to the people who process personal information regards privacy
9. Identify and address specific privacy and information collection and sharing risks or issues
10. Advise on the transfer of personal information across borders - for example from the EU to South Africa.  You need to comply with the European Union’s Directive on Data Protection and we can help with the filings that may be needed with the UK Data Protection Authority
11. Identify the regulatory hot buttons
12. Research other jurisdictions

Ongoing review

We support you to review your situation on an ongoing basis and ensure that you continue to comply.

Get a proposal from us

For more information or a proposal, please contact privacy@michalsons.com.  Our proposal will be broken down in phases.  Each step is dependent on the previous step.  For example, you do not know what solutions you need to implement, unless you have assessed where you are and what solutions you require.  Even if you know what solutions you need, it is often not possible to implement them with having done your homework.  For example, to draft your Privacy Policy you need to know how you process personal information.  We can only provide you with a quote for a piece of work if we know the scope of the piece of work.

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) has been signed into law and will become operative on 24 October 2010. The CPA will have huge implications for your standard business terms and conditions, policies and other documents. The CPA introduces many obligations on vendors which vendors may probably not even be aware of because it was never before required by law. These include for example:

• A vendor must bring certain clauses to a customer’s attention;
• Very specific requirements when selling goods voetstoots;
• Warranty against defective goods for 6 months;
• Liability for gross negligence.

It is imperative that you as Vendor understand what you may and may not include in your terms and other documents. To accomplish this, we can perform a two leg exercise to your existing documents. We

1. Audit your existing documents to determine whether they comply with the provisions of the CPA; and
2. Draft or redraft appropriate clauses where your existing documents do not comply.

We can also provide advice or an opinion on various clauses independently like warranty, indemnity, liability, delivery and any others.

We will help you to:

1. Assess where you are;
2. Determine the gap between your actual position and compliance;
3. Fill the gap to ensure that your documents comply.

Through the audit you either get assurance that you comply or we help you to comply.

The deliverables are:

1. a written report on the audit including a report on all aspects where your existing documents do not comply and the implications of non - compliance. It entails a clause by clause examination and references to the applicable section in the CPA;
2. redrafted or new clauses to ensure compliance.

What do we cover?

• An overview of  PPI laws, rules, codes and standards
  
• What must an organisation comply with?
• Overview of the PPI Bill.  What is it and what is the current status?  What are the time lines?
• Important definitions
• The role players
• Key terms not defined in the PPI Bill
• Implementing an effective PPI compliance program
• Mapping of activities to determine obligations
• How will the PPI Bill affect organisations?  What is going to have the biggest impact?  Some practical examples:
  • The collection of personal information
  • Communication with and marketing to customers or prospects
  • Information security safeguards
  • The documents that will be affected

Outcomes

• Get a working understanding of the affect of PPI laws on an organisation and its business
  • Get an overview of PPI laws, including the Protection of Personal Information Bill
  • Become sufficiently familiar with the general content of PPI laws to discharge your duties
• Understand the context of PPI laws and how they interact
• Be aware of the challenges it will bring and the opportunities it will create
• Know where to start with your compliance program

Who should attend?  Why?

• Directors (executive and non-executive, CEOs and FDs) - to discharge their legal duties and direct the course of the organisation
• CAEs, auditors and assurance providers (internal and external) - to audit and provide assurance regards PPI
• CROs and Risk Managers - to manage PPI risks
• CIOs and IT Managers - to manage ICT
• IT Operators - to ensure that ICT operates
• IT Security officers - to secure ICT
• Information (protection) officers - to balance access to information and protection of information
• IT Governance officers and specialists - to govern ICT
• Vendors, solution providers, VARs, agents, distributors and consultants - to advise and provide solutions on PPI related issues
• Compliance officers - to effectively comply with PPI laws
• Legal advisors (corporate lawyers or in-house lawyers) - to provide good legal advice on PPI issues

Who is the presenter?

John Giles, Partner, Michalsons Attorneys
John is an information, communications and technology (ICT) lawyer.  He has 10 years of experience applying his knowledge to organisations to help them grow and avoid legal problems, difficulties, and disputes.  He is a member of the King III IT Governance Sub-Committee.  John finds the best board meetings to be in a suit in the surf.  John is currently helping many organisations get to grips with the impact of the PPI Bill on their business.

How long is it?

The seminar is 45 minutes.

What does it cost?

Please let us know that you are interested and we will provide you with a quote.

Where is it?

We are happy to run the seminar at your office or as a webinar.

1. What approach or course of action do you recommend we follow in an attempt to get the registrant of a domain name to transfer it to us?
2. What are my chances or what is the likelihood of success?
3. What will it cost me?

Answering these questions is often harder than it appears.  We hope you weren’t expecting an easy answer.

We understand that people want to know what they are in for before they start trying to get the registrant of a domain name to transfer it to them.  They want a clear understanding of how to approach it and what each approach involves, including how long it will take and what it will cost.  Dispute resolution processes are often lengthy and costly and consume a lot of time.  There is nothing worse than feeling out of control when you are stuck in a process that you cannot pull out of, the costs are mounting, and you have no guarantee that you are going to be successful.  You don’t want to embark on such a process, without knowing that you have a reasonable chance of success.  You don’t want to chase something you can’t get.  Otherwise you can end up with egg on your face.

The questions often relate to more than one domain name.  The domain names are often a mixture of generic top level domains (”gTLD”) and country code top level domains (”ccTLD”).  The most important gTLDs are <.com>, <.net>, <.org>, <.info> and <.mobi>.  Examples of ccTLDs are <.co.za> and <.uk>.

Sometimes the domains are being actively used by the registrant and sometimes they are simply parked domains.

Based on our previous experience, we find it best to follow a three step process in these matters.  Each step is clearly defined and separate.

1. Conduct an in-depth investigation into each domain name and give you our written or verbal opinion.
2. Implement our recommendations to send letters or offers on your instructions.
3. Lay complaints.

Get an estimate of our fees for providing you with our written or verbal opinion by contacting us.

Instructions and scope of engagement:  These terms of service, as supplemented or amended by any relevant Letter of Engagement or estimate (”LOE”), apply to each specific instruction in relation to which you, our client, ask us to provide services to you irrespective of whether it has been defined in the LOE or not.  No variation of these terms of service shall be effective unless in writing and signed by us. Unless otherwise agreed, these terms of service apply to any future work which you instruct us to do. Your continuing instructions will amount to your deemed acceptance of these terms of service.

Companies:  If we are instructed by a juristic person (e.g. company or a close corporation, partnership, trust) you must establish at the outset who is to be nominated to deal with us.  In the absence of such nomination, we will assume that we are entitled to take instructions from any director, member, partner, trustee or other senior employee unless you inform us in writing that we may not do so.

Fees:  Our fees may comprise:

1. a fixed cost component for the various precedents that we may use when drafting the agreement, terms or conditions or policy (”document”) together with,
2. a time based component based on the amount of time it takes us to customise the document we might use, or
3. a pure time based fee based on the time that we spend on dealing with an instruction.

Fixed cost component:  When calculating the fixed cost component, we take into account a number of factors that include reading around the subject matter of the transaction to provide additional, necessary context, the complexity of the issues (both factually and legally) the relevance and importance of legislative compliance issues and the level of detail required in the document being prepared.

Time based fee:  Time spent on each instruction will include (as examples only):

1. meetings with you and perhaps others (either over the phone or face to face, including the time it takes to prepare a written record of the meeting), any time spent travelling, waiting, preparing and working on papers,
2. making notes,
3. letters, e-mails, faxes in and out, making and receiving telephone calls,
4. research (including surfing any websites) and (v) time spent on customising precedents and the preparation of any detailed changes to any documents we prepare.

In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of other factors.  These include the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action must be taken or the expertise or specialist knowledge that the case requires.  These factors would normally be taken into account in the fee estimate quoted in your LOE.

Fee estimates:  Our provision of any quote to you (whether orally or in writing) from time to time for the likely cost of a piece of work is an estimate only and does not constitute a contract to carry out the work at that cost until you accept the quotation or a defined part of it.  Where we carry out work which falls outside the scope of an accepted quotation (or outside the scope of an estimate that is subsequently incorporated into a contract between us) we may charge fees at our standard hourly rates, in addition to the quoted or estimated fee.

Fixed fees:  In certain circumstances we may agree to render the services for a fixed fee.  Any fixed fee is based on the assumption that the information required for us to render the services is made available in accordance with agreed timetables and that key personnel are available during the course of our work.  If delays or other unanticipated problems occur, which are beyond our control, this may result in additional fees being charged.  We will advise you of delays as they occur and will estimate their effect.

Additional Fees: We reserve the right to: (i) charge additional fees for work within the scope of a quotation or estimate or (ii) increase our fixed fees in the following situations: where the scope of the work changes (whether in the amount or complexity of that work or in respect of any other relevant aspect of that work) and where the work is made more time consuming, onerous or urgent as a result of:

1. circumstances or information which we did not know or could not reasonably have anticipated at the time of the quotation or estimate (whether or not you were aware of them/it), or
2. if any information you have provided to us regarding the instruction proves inaccurate resulting in an increase in our work, or
3. your, or your agent’s act or omission.

Rates:  The rates which will apply to your matter will be set out in the LOE.  We usually review our hourly rates each year and will notify you in writing of any increased rate.  We may also increase our rates in the course of a matter to take account of, for example, the factors described in “Time based fee” above.  We record time in “units” of 10 minutes each.  We may “round-up” time of less than 10 minutes to treat it as one “unit”.

Expenses or disbursements:  Our fees are exclusive of:

1. expenses (or disbursements); and
2. VAT that will be charged at 14%.

There are certain expenses we will consult you before incurring such expenses, and others we will not.

• Expenses we will consult you before incurring include Court fees, stamp duties and counsel’s fees and other experts and (patent and trademark) search fees, and the cost of travel by aeroplane, car hire and hotel accommodation.
• Expenses we will not consult you on before incurring include telephone, bandwidth, fax, copying, local travel, stationery and printing costs as well as the costs of the compulsory storage of your files.  We recover these expenses by means of a standard charge equal to 3% of our fees, with a minimum charge of R150.00 per invoice.

Invoicing and payment: Unless otherwise agreed in writing, all invoices will be rendered electronically. You agree that your signature of our LOE or fee estimate constitutes your written confirmation to accept electronic invoices for the purpose of claiming input tax. Unless specified to the contrary in our LOE, our policy is generally to render invoices on a monthly basis with a brief description of the nature of the work covered by the invoice concerned, unless we consider that invoices should be rendered more or less frequently in light of the amounts involved or the nature of ongoing work.  Where we have drafted a document for you which requires your comment and you do not provide us with your comment within 30 days of the document having been sent to you, we shall be entitled to invoice you for the services rendered. Our invoices are due for payment within 7 days of presentation.  We reserve the right to charge interest at 2% above prime, compounded monthly in arrears, on invoices which remain unpaid for more than 30 days.  You are requested to please make payment by way of a direct transfer into our banking account, the details of which are reflected at the foot of each account.

Provision of information to us:  It is your responsibility to provide us with complete, accurate and timely information where we have requested this, and to carry out any other obligations ascribed to you or others.  We will not be responsible for any consequences which may arise from any delay or your failure to do so, and these may also result in additional fees being charged.

Provision of advice:  We will provide the services to you with reasonable skill and care in accordance with the professional standard expected of us, and in a timely manner.  The nature and content of any advice we provide will necessarily reflect the law as it applies in South Africa at that point in time.  It will also reflect the specific scope and limitations of a specific instruction as set out in our LOE.  If at your request we provide our advice in an abbreviated format or time scale, you acknowledge that you will not receive all the information you would have received had we provided a full written report, or had more time in which to carry out the work.

Provision of opinions: The law can be interpreted in many different ways and therefore we are only able to give you our opinion on how the law will be interpreted. We cannot and do not guarantee our opinion nor give any representation, warranty, or indemnity with regard to it. We do, however, act strictly in accordance with the professional standard to be expected of us in giving the opinion.

Reliance on advice: Our advice is provided for your benefit. Accordingly any advice given to you (whether verbally or in writing) shall be based on the information you supply to us and we are not liable to you or to any third party for any damages suffered as a result of your failure to disclose any relevant information to us. Our advice is also provided to you in a particular context based on your unique facts and circumstances. Accordingly, our advice is given for your sole use and may only be relied on by you. No party other shall be entitled to rely on advice given by us to you for any purpose whatsoever. You are solely responsible for:

1. making all management decisions and performing all management functions;
2. designating a competent management member to oversee the services;
3. evaluating the adequacy and results of the services;
4. accepting responsibility for the results of the services; and
5. establishing and maintaining internal controls, including, without limitation, monitoring ongoing activities.

We accordingly disclaim any responsibility for the use our advice for a different entity or in a different context and you hereby indemnify us against any claim by any third party arising from advice given by us to you.

Intellectual property:  We retain all copyright and other intellectual property rights in all documents and other works we develop or generate for you in providing the services (including know-how, working materials and final documents).  We hereby grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use these documents or other works solely for the instruction to which the services of developing or generating them relate, and not otherwise.  If you do not pay us in full for our services in relation to that instruction, we may revoke that license and only re-grant it to you once full payment has been made.  We may retain, for our subsequent use, a copy of the advice or opinion of counsel or other third party given in written form obtained in the course of providing the services.  If we retain a copy of any advice or opinion in this manner, we will take all reasonable steps to conceal information (such as names, addresses or descriptions) which might reasonably enable you to be identified.

Money laundering:  Following the events of September 11, 2001 and the upsurge of international terrorism, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 38 of 2001 (FICA) compels us as an “accountable institution” to compile a “profile” of our client.  Accordingly, you will be asked to supply us with certain documents in our LOE before we can act for you.  Notwithstanding our reporting obligations in terms of FICA, we as attorneys are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of our clients confidential.  This obligation is recognised by FICA and any communication which you make to us concerning your affairs will not be disclosed to us.  However, FICA requires us to make disclosures where we know or suspect that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering.  If this happens, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it because the law prohibits us from doing so.

Communications:  Unless otherwise directed by you, we will correspond with you by means of electronic mail.  Whilst we take reasonable steps to safeguard the security and confidentiality of the information transmitted, we:

1. do not encrypt our electronic communications; and
2. cannot guarantee its security and confidentiality.

While we do check all outgoing correspondence with anti-virus software, we cannot guarantee that transmissions will be free from harmful code.  If the communication relates to a matter of significance on which you wish to rely and you are concerned about the possible effects of electronic transmission, you should request a hard copy of such transmission from us.  If you wish us to password protect all or certain documents transmitted, you are requested to please discuss this with us and we will make appropriate arrangements.

Promotional materials:  You consent to us referring to:

1. the fact that we rendered services to you, and
2. the nature of the services rendered to you in our promotional material.

Limitation of liability:  Our liability to you in respect of any loss or damage which may be suffered by you arising from the services (whether arising under contract, delict, strict liability or otherwise, irrespective of whether the services have been terminated or not) shall:

1. exclude liability for any consequential, exemplary, extrinsic, indirect, incidental, punitive, pure economic or special loss or damage of any kind whatsoever and howsoever caused (”Losses”),
2. be limited to direct damages only, and
3. be limited to the total amount of the fees paid by you in connection with the services rendered in any particular instruction.

We are not liable to the extent that the loss or damage results from something you do or fail to do (such as giving us the wrong information or not giving us information at a time we ask for it).

Indemnification: In the event of any third party making any claim against us for any Losses arising from any cause in connection with the services we render to you, whether such Losses result from breach of contract, delict, negligence or any other cause without limitation, and whether our services are terminated or not, you hereby indemnify us against any such claim, unless it is finally determined that the loss or damage was caused by fraud or intentional misconduct on our part or any or our employees or agents.

Termination:  If you wish us to stop acting for you, you may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time.  We will only exercise our right to stop acting for you if we have good reason to do so (for example if a conflict of interest comes to light or if you do not comply with our request to pay an account).  We will give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.  If you terminate your instructions to us or if we stop acting for you, you will be invoiced for our fees and expenses up to the time we stop acting.

Dispute resolution:  If any dispute arises out of or in connection with the services that we render to you the dispute must be referred for resolution firstly by way of negotiation and in the event of that failing, by way of mediation and in the event of that failing, by way of arbitration.  The reference to negotiation and mediation is a pre-condition to the parties having the dispute resolved by arbitration.

• Negotiation: If any dispute arises out of or in connection with the services that we render to you, the dispute must be referred to the most senior person at each party in order to try and resolve the dispute by way of negotiation.
• Mediation: In the event of negotiations failing, we agree to refer the dispute for resolution by way of mediation within seven (7) days of the negotiations failing.  The negotiations shall, inter alia, be deemed to have failed if one of us declares in writing that it has failed.
• Arbitration: If the dispute cannot be resolved by way of mediation, then we agree that the matter will be referred to arbitration and that the arbitration will be held as an expedited arbitration in Cape Town in accordance with the then current rules for expedited arbitration by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) by one arbitrator appointed by agreement between us.  If we cannot agree on the arbitrator within five (5) days after the referral of the dispute to arbitration, we agree that the arbitrator will be appointed by the Secretariat of AFSA.  We agree that the decision of the arbitrator will be binding on us if neither of us has lodged an appeal after the expiry of ten (10) days from the date of the arbitrator’s ruling.  We agree that any party may appeal the decision of the arbitrator within ten (10) days after the arbitrator’s ruling has been handed down by giving notice to that effect to the other.  The appeal shall be held in accordance with the laws of AFSA by a panel of three (3) arbitrators appointed by AFSA.  The decision of the majority of the arbitrators shall be binding on us and may be made an order of Court at the instance of either of us.  Notwithstanding the a foregoing, we are not precluded from approaching an appropriate Court of law for interim relief in respect of any urgent matters by way of an interdict or mandamus pending the outcome of the arbitration.

Jurisdiction: Subject to the above arbitration provision, both parties hereby irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of a division of the High Court of the Republic of South Africa in any dispute arising from or in connection with this Agreement.

Agreement: Any waiver of these terms will only be binding if (i) made (or recorded) in writing, (ii) signed by us and (iii) expressly states an intention to waive these terms.

Changes: These terms of service may be changed at any time by us and where this affects your rights and obligations we will notify you of any changes by placing a notice in a prominent place on this web site (or by email). If you do not agree with the change you should stop instucting us or using this web site. If you continue to instruct us or to use this web site following notification of a change to these terms of service, the changed terms will apply to you.

The benefits of using us include:

• Save money by reducing your legal budget and spend

1. lower rates than the big firms
2. alternative fee arrangments (including fixed fees)
3. limits on disbursements
4. quick pay discounts

• Save time by receiving the right advice from a qualified professional.  Easy access to a team of experienced and expert attorneys who focus on the law relating to technology.  Avoid protracted negotiations.
• Receive high quality work.
• Quick responses - get legal services within agreed time frames.
• Avoid legal problems, difficulties, and disputes by managing your legal risks.
• Get punchy, practical, jargon-free, and actionable help that relates to your specific circumstances - we serve our clients as though we were advising our close friends or family.
• Be aware of what we are doing and what it is going to cost you - we are always transparent.
• Make your life easier - reduce your workload.
• Understand documents easily and avoid misunderstandings - we draft everything in plain language.
• Ensure that all communications, findings, and advice are privileged and no one can use them against you - this is only the case if you deal with a law firm registered with the law society.

Who uses us?  Why they use us?

• Directors (executive and non-executive, CEOs and FDs) - to discharge their legal duties and direct the course of the organisation
• CAEs, auditors and assurance providers (internal and external) - to audit and provide assurance regards ICT
• CROs and Risk Managers - to manage ICT risks
• CIOs and IT Managers - to manage ICT
• IT Operators - to ensure that ICT operates
• IT Security officers - to secure ICT
• Information (protection) officers - to balance access to information and protection of information
• IT Governance officers and specialists - to govern ICT
• Compliance officers - to effectively comply with ICT laws
• Consultants - to advise and provide solutions on ICT related issues
• Legal advisors (corporate lawyers or in-house lawyers) - to provide good legal advice on ICT issues
• Entrepreneurs (internet and technology) - to start and build ICT businesses

What types of organisations?

Our clients include start-ups, small, medium, and large enterprises (including several listed companies).  We also help many government departments, parastatals, public bodies, and non-profit organisations.

What organisations use us?  Why they use us?

• ICT vendors (vendors of ICT goods or services)
  • to receive traditional legal services regards their organisation
  • to manage the legal relationship with their customers
  • to structure the organisation
• Organisations that procure and use ICT (like banks and mines)
  • to receive traditional legal services regards their use of ICT
  • to manage ICT
  • to manage ICT risks
  • to govern ICT
  • to effectively comply with ICT laws
• Internet companies - to receive traditional legal services regards the Internet
• Gaming companies (both traditional and online) - to comply with the regulatory requirements
• Media companies (including digital, new or social media providers, providers of Web2.0 applications and on-demand hosted services)
• Marketing companies (including direct marketing) - to avoid legal problems, difficulties and disputes
• Internet service providers - to receive traditional legal services on issues specific to them
• Associations - to receive traditional legal services on an ICT topic on behalf of their members

Reference Sites

Michalsons respects the confidentiality of its client’s and accordingly does not publish the names of clients it acts for as reference sites. Further, in terms of various rulings of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces and the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope, attorneys are not permitted to refer to the name of a client in their publicity or the public media unless the consent of the client has been obtained (rules 15.4 and 14.4.1.7).