John William Daniel Brand is a South African attorney and mediator based in Johannesburg. He became a partner at Bowman Gilfillan Hayman Godfrey in 1979 and built a practice in corporate, commercial, taxation and estate law, later becoming known for dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration and the training of negotiators.
Background
Brand's professional life is rooted in Johannesburg, where the firms that shaped his career were headquartered. Webber Wentzel, the first firm with which he trained, was founded in 1868 and has its headquarters in Johannesburg.
South African attorneys have traditionally completed a period of articled clerkship with an established firm before admission to practice. Brand's early career followed this route, beginning with articles at a Johannesburg firm before he moved into associate and partnership positions.
Career
Brand's legal training began in Johannesburg, where he served as an articled clerk at Webber Wentzel from January 1974 to January 1976. Webber Wentzel traces its origins to 1868 and is a full-service South African firm whose main office is in Johannesburg. Articles of clerkship gave trainee attorneys practical experience under an established practitioner before they qualified.
From February 1976 to July 1979 he was an associate at Bowman Gilfillan and Blacklock, a Johannesburg law practice whose name appears in South African legal records from the 1930s. In August 1979 he became a partner of Bowman Gilfillan Hayman Godfrey Inc. Bowman Gilfillan Hayman Godfrey, established in 1902, was one of three practices that merged in 1998 to form Bowman Gilfillan, a firm later known as Bowmans. His practice, as described in the existing profile, covered general practice, corporate and commercial law, taxation, real estate and deceased estates. He remained a partner until February 2014.
After leaving the partnership, he worked as a consultant at Bowmans until February 2019. In the same period he was a director of Conflict Dynamics, which provided mediation and negotiation training, from January 1982 until January 2020. His later work centred on dispute resolution, including mediation, facilitation, negotiation, arbitration and training.
Membership
The International Mediation Institute is a Hague-based non-profit initiative, established in 2007, that seeks to drive transparency and high competency standards in mediation worldwide. Its Independent Standards Commission, a body of mediators, judges, providers, trainers and educators from many countries, developed the criteria and standards for IMI Certification. The Commission was reconstituted in January 2019 and replaced by an Independent Advisory Committee.
