Denise van Heerden

Denise van Heerden is an Associate at ENS in the Natural Resources and Environment practice, focusing on Environmental Law. She specialises in environmental law, mining law, trusts law (including environmental rehabilitation trusts) and ESG-related regulatory compliance.

Her experience includes advising international and local clients, government entities and state-owned enterprises on complex environmental and mining regulatory matters, including environmental and mining due diligences, statutory applications under the National Environmental Management Act, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the Precious Metals Act, mining and environmental law aspects of M&A transactions, licensing and permitting compliance, surface and land use arrangements, and mining and environmental law disputes.

She is also experienced in upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas operations, the registration and amendment of trusts including environmental rehabilitation trusts, and in crafting legal opinions on a wide range of environmental and regulatory issues. She regularly advises clients on aligning their operations with sustainability objectives and evolving governance standards, and has advised clients in the mining, renewable energy, waste management, water and climate change sectors.

Denise has been selected to participate in the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges Mentorship Programme. She holds an LLB (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of the Western Cape and is admitted as an Attorney and Notary of the High Court of South Africa.