Our People
Peter Edwards has been the managing director of the firm since December 2001. After obtaining his LLB degree from the University of Cape Town in 1991 and completing legal articles at Herold Gie attorneys in Cape Town in 1995, he was admitted as an attorney. In addition, he also qualified to practice as an advocate having passed the Advocates Bar Exam in 1992. Peter has a wide legal experience which includes all forms of commercial drafting and company structuring, admiralty litigation, general commercial litigation, fisheries law and administrative law. On the commercial side, Peter has previously acted as in-house legal counsel within the Nedcor Group.
Besides Peter’s experience in practice, on the academic front, he has obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Tax Law in 1993 and an LLM in Commercial Law in 1997 (including a module in Shipping Law) both at the University of Cape Town. Peter has been a member of the Maritime Law Association of South Africa for the past 25 years and has served on its executive committee for over 10 years.
Outside of the legal arena, Peter’s interests include club cricket, tennis, hiking and other sporting activities.
Alistair Downing commenced his legal career with the Department of Justice in 1987 and served as a Public Prosecutor until 1995, whereafter he was involved with the maritime leisure industry whilst graduating from the University of South Africa with a B.Proc degree in 2000. He subsequently completed a post graduate Masters degree in Shipping law at the University of Cape Town in 2002.
Alistair thereafter joined Dawson Edwards & Associates in 2003 and is currently a Director in the litigation department. He currently deals exclusively in civil and criminal litigation matters and specialises in compliance issues relating to Maritime, Marine Resources and Environmental law.
He is also a long standing member of the Maritime Law Association of South Africa and currently serves as one of the adjudicators of the appeals tribunal of the South African Heritage Resource Agency with regard to matters relating to Maritime Archaeology.
Alistair is also one of Cape Towns leading technical mixed gas scuba diving instructors and spends most of his spare time under the water.
Grant Clark graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1996 with a Masters of Law degree specialising in Commercial law. He joined Dawson Edwards & Associates at the establishment of the firm in 1996 and thereafter spent a year working for the Department of Trade and Industry in London and thereafter two years at Irvin & Johnson Limited as the group legal advisor.
Grant thereafter spent two years working for the Ministry of Education in Japan and re-joined Dawson Edwards & Associates at the beginning of 2004.
Outside of work Grant can be found engaging in one form of sport or another and enjoys an active lifestyle. In 2022 he played hockey for South Africa in the Master’s Hockey World Cup held in Cape Town.
Nicholas Britz graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2007 with a B.Soc.Sci majoring in Law and Politics and went on to graduate with an LLB in 2009. He joined Dawson Edwards & Associates in 2010 to complete his two-year articles. Nicholas was admitted in March 2012 and was appointed as a director of the firm in 2017. He has also completed a Master’s degree (LLM) in Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town. Nicholas specializes in commercial transactions and company law and currently heads up the Environmental Law Department at the firm. He is a member of the Environmental Law Association of South Africa.
Outside of work Nicholas’s interests include hiking, gym, traveling and most sporting activities
Marius is a specialist in litigation and regulatory matters with a particular expertise in fisheries, environmental, natural resources and marine law. He has extensive experience in these areas of the law which includes advising on environmental, regulatory and risk matters relating to contractual compliance and director liability and authorisation/permitting processes. He has represented clients in the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and in the Constitutional Court in a wide range of matters.
Before joining Dawson Edwards as a senior consultant, he practised for 15 years at Webber Wentzel attorneys. Marius has previously served as the Special Legal Advisor to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and was appointed Head of the Ministry. His expertise has been recognised in Chambers Global, Best Lawyers and PLC Which Lawyer. He has contributed to a number of publications and legal textbooks and also lectured marine law to postgraduate classes at the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University. He was appointed a director of the South African National Parks Board, appointed to South Africa’s Continental Shelf Claim Committee, and the Chairman of the Legal Task Team responsible for drafting of the Marine Living Resources Act and Regulations. Marius was awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice for outstanding performance and invaluable assistance in the environment and natural laws division. More recently, he was appointed as an Acting Judge in the Western Cape High Court.
His experience, profile and knowledge will add greatly to the services which Dawsons can offer to its clients and will further enhance the firm’s reputation as a leader in its specialised practice areas.
Zamashombela Khowa joined Dawson Edwards and Associates in 2021 as a Candidate Legal Practitioner. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Fort Hare. She thereafter undertook studies towards a Master’s degree in Shipping Law at the University of Cape Town in 2021 for which she graduated in 2022. She is also a member of the Maritime Law Association of South Africa and is a member of the Space Solutions for the Maritime Sector, which is an initiative of the Department of Transport .
Outside of the workspace, Zama enjoys painting, reading and hiking
Charlotte Ducommun, fluent in French, graduated from the University of the Free State in 2019 with an LLB and pursued a Master’s degree (LLM) in Marine and Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town in 2020. Charlotte joined the Dawson Edwards & Associates team as a Candidate Attorney in December 2021. She is passionate about environmental law, and how it interacts with human rights. Charlotte is also a member of the Environmental Law Association of South Africa.
Outside of work, Charlotte loves keeping herself busy. She enjoys reading books, learning new languages, strength training at the gym, and is a passionate horse rider. She teaches horse riding on weekends and is learning how to master dressage, the most intricate discipline in horse riding.