Advocate Nelly Sakata is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. She has over 20 years’ legal experience, including more than 16 years at the Competition Commission of South Africa, with extensive experience in complex investigations and litigation.  Her litigation experience includes merger, cartel and abuse of dominance matters before the Competition Tribunal and the Competition Appeal Court, as well as administrative reviews and general litigation before the High Court and the Magistrates’ Courts.

Her practice encompasses competition law, administrative and regulatory law, and commercial litigation. Her competition law experience includes digital markets and platform competition, as well as matters arising in the natural resources, mining, energy and infrastructure sectors. She is building on this experience to expand her practice into broader regulatory and commercial disputes in these sectors.

She holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Pretoria and previously practised at Adams & Adams, a leading African intellectual property law firm. She has guest lectured at the Universities of Pretoria and the Witwatersrand, and delivered competition law training to competition authorities across Africa, including Mauritius, Morocco, Malawi, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Namibia, as well as to regional institutions, including COMESA.