Webber Wentzel is excited to announce the launch of “Webber Wentzel Alert”, an online tool designed to launch a co-ordinated legal emergency response at the click of a button in the event of a search and seizure by the police and/or other regulatory authorities (commonly known as "a dawn raid").

Webber Wentzel Alert enables organisations to notify a pre-identified group of key individuals within their businesses and their pre-selected legal team at Webber Wentzel that a dawn raid is in progress. Apart from saving valuable time, it also provides easy online access to best practice guidance on their rights and obligations during the raid, enabling an informed, co-ordinated and internally aligned response.

Christo Els, Senior Partner at Webber Wentzel, said “Dawn raids are an increasingly frequent reality in South Africa and this user-friendly application removes a lot of frustration and uncertainty from the process when the rapid mobilisation of the right leadership and expert teams is critical - often in very difficult circumstances”.

Webber Wentzel Alert is the only locally produced tool of its kind backed by a premier law firm, which offers this crucial link between dawn raid preparedness and dawn raid response. This investment evidences Webber Wentzel’s continued pursuit of implementing solutions which resolve clients’ most pressing business risk issues. 

Els notes that “Webber Wentzel can seamlessly assist clients from preparing for the raid (through the creation of appropriate protocols and providing training to key personnel), to launching a raid response with Webber Wentzel Alert, providing assistance during the raid and all subsequent investigations and legal proceedings (including urgent applications) which may arise out of the raid. Our end-to-end approach recognises and addresses the increasingly complex regulatory compliance challenges that are faced by most large organisations”. 

Webber Wentzel Alert is a web-based application and simply requires internet connectivity for users to trigger the alert and receive alert notifications. The tool is available 24/7. Different individuals can be set up to receive notifications for each location at which an organisation conducts operations and the alert will also identify which location triggered the alert.