Dirk Swanepoel
Director
Barnard’s Corporate & M&A team assists businesses, entrepreneurs, directors and investors with practical commercial and corporate legal support in Pretoria and across South Africa.
The team advises on commercial agreements, contract drafting and review, corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, transaction structuring, investment transactions and business restructuring, with commercially grounded advice that helps clients move forward with clarity.
Related Core Services
Commercial Agreements & Risk Allocation
Drafting, reviewing and strengthening commercial contracts and risk frameworks
Joint Ventures & Strategic Partnerships
Collaboration structuring, governance, contributions and exit planning
Investment, Funding & Capital Raising
Founder, investor and funding-stage legal support
Due Diligence & Deal Readiness
Risk reviews, deal preparation and transaction support before terms are locked in
Mergers, Acquisitions & Disposals
Buying, selling and combining businesses with clear transaction support
Corporate Structuring & Governance
Company formation, group structures, shareholder arrangements and governance foundations
How We Work
(so you know what happens next)
- Quick discovery call
- Options + recommendation (trade-offs made clear)
- Execute with milestones
- Protect the wider position (governance, control, risk allocation and next-step planning)
If something is time-sensitive, we'll tell you what to do first.
How Barnard helps businesses through growth and change
We do not treat corporate work as a set of isolated documents. We treat it as a business lifecycle function - helping clients put the right structure in place, make informed transaction decisions, and reduce risk as the business evolves.
Build the right structure early
Support deals that move properly
Prepare for investment and scrutiny
Align capital, control and commercial expectations
Put durable commercial frameworks in place
What it's like to work with our Corporate & M&A team
Pillar A: Commercial clarity first
Pillar B: Structured, responsive, decisive
Pillar C: Built around the business objective
Need a clear starting point? Ask for a first-look corporate or transaction assessment.
Case Studies
Trusted in growth, investment and transaction decisions
Corporate and M&A
Independent contractor agreement to reduce misclassification risk
Barnard prepared an independent contractor agreement that clearly distinguished contractor status from employment, helping reduce labour, tax and liability risk within a properly structured commercial framework.
Corporate and M&A
B-BBEE ownership restructure to restore compliance and competitiveness
Barnard advised on a B-BBEE ownership restructure in the manufacturing and medical sector, designing a sustainable non-profit ownership model that addressed priority-element penalties, supported net-value recognition and improved procurement competitiveness.
Corporate and M&A
Lease agreement review to reduce commercial risk
Barnard reviewed and refined a commercial lease agreement to improve clarity around duration, termination and liability allocation, helping reduce contractual risk and strengthen the client’s position under South African law.
Corporate and M&A
Operational policies to strengthen governance and compliance
Barnard reviewed and aligned internal operational policies with applicable legislation and business realities, helping improve governance, compliance certainty and accountability across the organisation.
Is Your Business PAIA and POPIA Compliant? We Can Help You Find Out.
Business Compliance Checklists
Option 1
Check our overall PAIA and POPIA position
Complete the full guided assessment and receive an initial result.
Option 2
Get help with a specific requirement
Choose the document, process or compliance step with which your business needs assistance.
Option 3 — Priority
We are dealing with an active issue
Use this route for a data breach, Information Regulator correspondence, a PAIA request, a privacy complaint or another time-sensitive issue.
The result is based on the information you provide and is not a legal opinion or formal confirmation of compliance.
Thanks - we have what we need to route this properly.
A member of our team will contact you to confirm the next step and any information still needed. If timing is tight, we will prioritise that immediately.
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