Veteran advocate Fanie Cilliers SC has died at the age of 81.
Cilliers was regarded as one of the top commercial advocates in South Africa for decades. He was the most senior silk at the Johannesburg Bar‚ having earned silk status in June 1976.
Cilliers was admitted to the bar in April 1964 and listed commercial law‚ competition law‚ intellectual property and patent law as his areas of expertise.
Prof Michael Katz‚ chairperson of ENSafrica‚ said on Monday morning that Cilliers died on Sunday evening following a heart attack earlier in the weekend.
He said he was very sad as Cilliers had been his lifelong friend.
According to Katz‚ Cilliers had had a keen interest in quantum physics and was also a great golfer. But more than merely being a great legal mind‚ Cilliers was also "a refined gentleman"‚ he said.
Cilliers never retired and Katz said he had consulted Cilliers on Wednesday last week on a company law case.
Advocate Ian Green SC‚ chairperson of the Johannesburg bar‚ said Cilliers’s death "will leave a deep hole in the Joburg Bar."
Cilliers was the oldest silk at the Johannesburg Bar‚ he said. In 2014 the bar celebrated Cilliers’s half-century in practice.
He is survived by his wife Melanie.
-BusinessLIVE
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 