Samantha Davidson

Samantha Davidson is the Joint Managing Partner of Shepstone & Wylie in Durban, with over 20 years of experience specialising in pension and employee benefits law. She is an independent trustee of a large hybrid pension fund and serves as Principal Officer for several retirement funds.

She has extensive expertise in fund management, duties of trustees, surplus apportionment, and related issues, and was Chairperson of several section 15K surplus tribunals. She has represented employers and funds in legal proceedings for over two decades and has contributed to “The Manual on South African Retirement Funds and Other Employee Benefits”. She has presented numerous papers at seminars hosted by the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa (IRFA), the Pension Lawyers Association (PLA), the Principal Officers Association (now BATSETA), and the Black Lawyers Association.

Samantha holds a BCom (cum laude) and LLB (cum laude) from the University of KwaZulu‑Natal (UKZN). She is a member of BATSETA and the Pension Lawyers Association (having previously managed its Durban Chapter), and a member of the Legal and Technical Committee of the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa (IRFA). She was elected as joint Managing Partner of Shepstone & Wylie from 1 September 2025.