Webber Wentzel Appoints New Director In Africa Mining & Energy Projects Practice

Johannesburg, South Africa – Leading South African law firm Webber Wentzel has appointed John Smelcer as director in its Africa Mining & Energy Projects Practice.

Smelcer has been recognized by Chambers Global 2012 for his work on Africa-based oil and gas projects. These include large-scale oil and liquefied natural gas financings in West and Southern Africa and oil forward sale structures primarily in Egypt and Nigeria.

He also has taken a lead legal role on a number of the largest liquefied natural gas project financings around the world, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Qatar.

Prior to practicing law with Latham & Watkins in London, John lived and worked in southern Africa for five years where he was the founding national program director of the Public Policy Partnership in South Africa. The program built and led a coalition of South African Government, universities and local and international funding organisations to provide public policy training to top South African university students in preparation for careers in the South African public service.

John regularly leads Government training workshops in sub-Saharan Africa on the legal and structuring aspects of project financings.

He is a member of the New York Bar and American Bar Association and holds a Juris Doctor of Law from the University of Washington in the US as well as a public policy degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

About Webber Wentzel
Webber Wentzel is one of the leading corporate law firms in Africa. The firm far outstrips the local competition being consistently ranked at the top by a diversity of international ratings agencies and has achieved a number of legal accolades in 2012.

From offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the firm provides high-quality legal services to meet the multiple and varying needs of a powerful client base that includes many of South Africa's Top 100 companies in mining, insurance, technology, media and telecommunications and intellectual property and property.

Webber Wentzel is a full service corporate law firm offering expertise in legal areas including Dispute Resolution, Banking and Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Tax and Project Finance.

Webber Wentzel has a staff complement of 750 people and a Level Four B-BBEE rating. Its 21 practice groups cover virtually the entire spectrum of legal endeavour.

Work on the African continent represents a growing area of Webber Wentzel's business and the firm is associated with ALN, an established group of Africa's 12 foremost law firms.

For more information visit www.webberwentzel.com. Follow Webber Wentzel on Twitter: @WebberWentzel.