By Barbara Whittle

After fruitful exploratory meetings, the initial primary areas of cooperation on which the link partners will be concentrating will be commercial conveyancing, as well as marketing and business practice systems.

Senior partner of the growing firm Carol De Cerff, explains: ‘Our firm is extremely service driven and we believe that we have being providing an effective service to our clients over the years. However, due to the nature of our firm’s practice, the attorneys at our firm do not always get exposure to and experience in other fields of law which are of a commercial and corporate nature despite our qualifications in certain of these fields. We believe that skills transfer is an important component in practice generally because it will allow the “growing” firm to gain invaluable knowledge and practical experience from the “transferring” attorneys.’

Fairbridges director Adela Petersen is equally enthusiastic: ‘We are fortunate as a firm to have a deep reservoir of experience, knowledge and resources, not only in our fields of expertise but also in respect of law firm management and marketing. Training and mentoring of our professionals, paralegals and support staff is a crucial aspect of our structure. To be able to extend this beyond the confines of Fairbridges to a “growing” firm is an opportunity to share that we welcome. We also believe that we can learn from the experience and insights of C De Cerff & Associates, and that the interaction between our respective practitioners will be mutually beneficial.’

Ms De Cerff adds: ‘We believe that the Synergy Link initiative by the LSSA is a unique opportunity for our firm and for practice in general.’

Compiled by Barbara Whittle, communication manager, Law Society of South Africa, barbara@lssa.org.za

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2014 (Aug) DR 15.