South Africa’s diverse economy, political landscape and strategic role in Africa creates a unique business and regulatory environment.

Every two weeks, the Dentons South Africa Newsletter will keep you abreast of issues that affect doing business in South Africa, across the African continent and around the world, in a collection of articles, legal updates, alerts, and guides.

ESG: Acronym or Concept?

Acronyms often serve to mystify and blur simple concepts. An acronym assumes a level of expertise or familiarity, without which, it easily shrouds in smoke and creates confusion and misunderstanding of simple concepts.

ESG is the acronym for Environmental, Social, and Governance. The increasingly popular use of this acronym fails, on its own, to uncover the very purpose and nature of the three words it represents when strung together. This is a meagre attempt to demystify ESG and blow away some of the smoke.

ESG is best understood as a fundamental natural justice concept rather than an exercise in compliance.

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Dentons has been shortlisted for five awards by Law.com's African Legal Awards 2022

Dentons has been shortlisted for five awards by Law.com's African Legal Awards 2022. The African Legal Awards recognise exceptional achievement from within Africa’s legal community. With representation across 17 locations in Africa, these well-earned shortlist nominations reflect achievements over the past 12 months and our commitment to delivering excellence in client service.

The awards for which Dentons has been shortlisted are:

• International Law Firm of the Year
• Employment Team of the Year
• Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Team of the Year
• Litigation and Dispute Resolution Team of the Year - Large Practice
• Property and Construction Team of the Year - Mid-Large Practice

Noor Kapdi, Africa Chief Executive, said, "We congratulate all our lawyers across Africa and the teams that support them as well as all other nominees. These shortlisting's demonstrate the strength of our brand as we continue our journey to become the leading Pan-African law firm owned and controlled by Africans."

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Managing IP recognizes 34 Dentons Intellectual Property lawyers as IP Stars 2022

Managing IP has recognized 34 Dentons lawyers from across 17 jurisdictions in the 2022 edition of IP Stars. The ranking highlights outstanding lawyers in the area of intellectual property (IP) law, trademarks and patents. In addition, two Dentons lawyers have been included in the Top 250 Women in IP 2022 list: Jenni Rutter (New Zealand), and Catherine Lee (Singapore).

IP Stars is the specialist guide to IP law firms and practitioners worldwide. The research covers a variety of IP practice areas, making it the most comprehensive IP guide in the legal profession.

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Dentons launches AI Challenge to develop an ESG monitoring solution for the real estate development sector

Dentons has partnered with ekipa, an open innovation platform, to launch an AI Challenge to develop an innovative AI-based tool to monitor and summarize ESG regulations applicable to the real estate development sector. The challenge calls on students, researchers, professionals, startups, and SMEs from anywhere in the world to submit their innovative solutions. The complete brief and participation requirements are available here.

Dentons South Africa conducts Bill of Rights and Social Media Training as part of Women's Month

As part of Women’s Month, Dentons in South Africa’s Katya Kapdi and Davin O. trained teenagers and young adults in the Cape Town office this month on the fundamental rights and basic concepts enshrined in the Bill of Rights of our Constitution. The training for youth, of high-school age, aimed to bring awareness to our most basic human rights. It included essential guidance on the risks of social media use for teenagers/young adults and simple safety measures they may employ to mitigate them.

Transferring a basic knowledge of these rights gives us the opportunity to assist with laying the foundations for progress in empowering women, achieving gender equality and social justice in South Africa.

See Linkedin post here.