Thai Scott

Full Profile

Thai has advised clients in high-value, complex, multi-party litigation, with expertise in commercial disputes involving both private and public law principles. He works across multiple sectors, including aviation, commercial disputes, class actions, professional practice, regulatory and investigations, and tax. Additionally, he has represented clients in both domestic and international arbitrations.
Prior to joining Clyde & Co, Thai was a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates and practiced as an advocate of the High Court of South Africa for seven years. During this time, he acted as junior and lead counsel in some of South Africa’s most significant commercial and regulatory disputes, many of which produced reported decisions. He has appeared in the South African, Namibian and Lesotho courts. 
Prior to being called to the bar, Thai worked as a judicial law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa and completed his articles of clerkship at a tier one commercial law firm. He holds a law degree with distinction from the University of Pretoria.

Experience

Commercial disputes

• Advising the business rescue practitioners in the bankruptcy and restructuring of a coal mine. The rescue process continued through six years of litigation involving numerous challenges to the business rescue process, attempts to liquidate the business, and asset forfeiture proceedings brought by the South African State.
• Advising the business rescue practitioner of a State-owned airline in litigation with the South African government to procure statutory approvals to sell the airline to a third-party investor.
• Advising a minority shareholder and its representative directors in a series of disputes involving the management and governance of, and the shareholder relationship in, an international contract mining firm.

Aviation

• Advising a State-owned airline in litigation with the South African licensing authorities regarding the cancellation of its international air licences.
• Advising the South African Civil Aviation Authority in litigation against the former head of its accident investigation division relating to the investigation of the ZS-CAR aircraft crash.
• Advising an investor in litigation challenging the South African Government’s decision to dispose of a portion of its shareholding in South African Airways SOC Limited.

Professional practice

• Advising a big four audit firm in multi-billion rand litigation involving alleged accounting irregularities in a publicly listed, multi-national furniture company.
•  Advising a big four audit firm in multi-billion rand litigation involving alleged accounting irregularities in a publicly listed, multi-national agricultural company.
• Advising a big four audit firm in an inquiry into the collapse of a mutual bank.
• Advising an investor in a claim against a financial services provider for professional negligence that resulted in the avoidable theft of invested funds due to business email compromise (hacking).

Regulatory and investigations

• Advising various companies and management in multi-billion rand civil fraud, asset forfeiture and tax litigation that formed the subject matter of the South African State Capture Commission.
• Advising a group of companies in asset forfeiture litigation involving an alleged cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.
• Advising a foreign investor in litigation against the Lesotho government in resisting asset forfeiture proceedings involving a hotel group.

Class actions

• Advising a big four audit firm in successfully resisting certification of a multi-billion-rand securities class action – the first of its kind brought in the South African courts – arising from alleged accounting irregularities in a publicly listed, multi-national furniture company.
• Advising a publicly listed mining company in resisting certification of a multi-billion-rand class action for damages allegedly arising from exposure to coal mine dust.

Tax

•  Advising Revenue Agency in litigation challenging the constitutionality of its statutory powers to appoint a third-party agent to collect tax debts.
•  Advising a high net worth individual and company in resisting a claim by the South African Revenue Service in a tax dispute involving the alleged under-declaration of income tax and value-added tax.
• Advising a group of trusts in a tax dispute resisting a claim by the South African Revenue Service involving the application of the general anti-avoidance provisions in the South African Income Tax Act.

Arbitration

• Advising the Central Bank of an African nation in proceedings to enforce and execute an ICC arbitration award in the South African courts at the instance of a foreign creditor.
• Advising an investment company in multi-billion rand arbitration proceedings involving shares in a publicly listed bank.
•  Acting in various domestic and international arbitrations.