Professional background and experience:

Samantha Phumaphi is a Barrister (Advocate) of the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Samantha has an LLB (Hons) Degree from the University of Sheffield (European, International, and Comparative Law) and an LLM (Masters in Commercial Law) from the University of Cape Town. She has extensively practiced law for over 15 years in various legal areas including commercial, insurance, employment, family and immigration.

Since moving to South Africa, Samantha’s practice has mainly concentrated on alternative dispute resolution. She is a certified Commercial Arbitrator and CEDR and Conflict Dynamics mediator. Samantha is a Registered Mediator with the Civil Mediation Council in the UK. She previously sat on the Board for the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa) and is a member of a number of panels both in South Africa and the UK.

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Mediation experience and style:

Samantha has mediated and co-mediated numerous disputes that have included commercial, employment, workplace, housing, and family law. She is on the panel of mediators for Conflict Dynamics, Tokiso, National Dispute Resolution and Mediate Works. Samantha has conducted mediations for large corporations, small institutions, and cross border disputes. She has conducted mediations both in person and online. Samantha has a high success rate of settlements for the mediations with most cases settling on the day.

Facilitation experience and style:

Samantha has facilitated processes that cover a range of disputes, particularly in the mining, government and transport industry. She has facilitated small and large groups and she works with the parties using a range of tools.

Chairing enquiries and investigations experience:

Having practiced employment law, Samantha is able to use this expertise when chairing disciplinary hearings and conducting investigations. Samantha has chaired many enquiries and investigations in a range of industries, the processes have included C-suite executives of large corporations, NGO’s, SOE’s and multi-national corporations, her recommendations have been upheld by the CCMA and the Labour Courts. Samantha endeavours to have a non-formalistic approach, however, makes sure that due process is followed.