Patrick Leyden

Patrick Leyden is a Director at DLA Piper in Johannesburg, specialising in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with a focus on the natural resources and energy sectors across Sub-Saharan Africa. He advises clients on domestic and cross‑border M&A transactions, joint ventures, private equity, corporate restructurings, black economic empowerment (B‑BBEE) transactions, as well as corporate governance, ESG, and regulatory compliance.

He has advised South32 on its equity investments into Noronex's copper projects in Namibia and Botswana, Lotus Resources on the negotiations of its mine development agreement with the Government of Malawi, Norilsk Nickel on the disposal of its 50% interest in Nkomati Mine to African Rainbow Minerals, and Harmony Gold Mining Company on its acquisition of AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng Mine and related operations in South Africa. He has also been involved in numerous cross‑border transactions across the African continent, providing strategic legal counsel to international mining houses, energy companies, and financial investors.

Patrick holds an LL.B and a BA from Rhodes University (2006 and 2004 respectively). He has been consistently ranked by Chambers Global (2022‑2026) in Band 4 for Energy & Natural Resources: Mining, recognised by Best Lawyers (2024‑2026) for Mining Law, named as one of the "Top 10 mining lawyers in South Africa" by Business Today (2023), and is a Lexology Client Choice Award Winner (2020, 2021) and recommended by Who's Who Legal (2019‑2026).