Chadbourne & Parke LLP is pleased to announce that leading energy and infrastructure lawyer Deon Govender has joined its Johannesburg office as an international partner.

Mr. Govender is an experienced counsel on project development, corporate and project finance transactions across Africa, with a focus on southern Africa. He joins Chadbourne after spending the last four and half years as a senior banker and in-house counsel with the corporate and investment banking division of Absa Bank, a South African subsidiary of Barclays. While at Absa, he led teams involved in the financings of thermal and renewable energy power plants and other infrastructure assets, including the 300 MW Project Maamba coal-fired power plant in Zambia (named “Power Deal of the Year” in 2015 by Project Finance International) and Dorper Wind’s 40 MW wind farm in South Africa (named “African Wind Deal of the Year” in 2012 by Euromoney). He and his team provided transactional support to resources and project finance, corporate debt and leveraged finance deal makers in relation to all aspects of the transaction cycle in various jurisdictions on the African continent. He worked at two international law firms before Absa.

“Expanding our physical presence in Johannesburg and the Sub-Saharan Africa market is in keeping with Chadbourne’s long-standing emerging markets pedigree and extensive Africa experience,” said Lido Fontana, managing partner of the Johannesburg office. “We are pleased to add Deon to our growing team and look forward to the important role he will play in strengthening our project finance practice throughout the region.”

Chadbourne opened its Johannesburg office in February 2015 to enhance the firm’s already vibrant practices in Africa. The Johannesburg office focuses on project financings in the region in particular, including oil and gas, mining, power (including renewable energy) and large infrastructure development. The African Legal Awards recently recognized Chadbourne as a market leader in the continent by naming the firm “Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Team of the Year” for 2015.