Lee Astfalck

Full Profile

Lee advises extensively on financial lines coverage & defence matters, including for professional service firms, intermediaries, financial institutions and directors & officers.

Lee is also a member of the Clyde One cyber team and jointly leads the Cyber practice in South Africa, focused on cyber & AI risks, data protection and technology.

He has extensive experience in technology, intellectual property disputes and incident response and provides critical advice as breach and coverage counsel in cyber-related matters.

Lee is admitted to practice in South Africa and in England and Wales.

Lee spent several years working in the London insurance market for a leading international insurer providing complex  insurance claims and corporate advice. 

Lee has been ranked in The Best Lawyers in South Africa for litigation and has been ranked in Chambers Global since 2019 for insurance where sources have stated that: “He is able to grasp and deal with technical matters, get to the heart of the issue and guide us to the ultimate resolution.  We rely on Lee in these difficult scenarios.”  “He is an exceptional technical lawyer and a balanced and calm individual in confrontational situations.”

Experience

Litigation & dispute resolution

• Defending a damages claim of R100 million against the former chief executive officer of a construction company relating to the alleged breach of duty in the management and operation of a mine.
• Defending a director of a leading tertiary institution in respect of an application to have the director declared delinquent in terms of the Companies Act 2008 for alleged breach of procurement policies and delegation of authority.
• Defending the directors of a major clothing and retail company in respect of claims involving alleged reckless trading and breaches of the Companies Act 2008.
• Acting for and defending the directors of a state-owned company in respect of allegations of breach of duty arising from an application by a creditor to have the company placed under business rescue proceedings.
• Successfully defended a commercial property insurance broker against allegations of professional negligence relating to the hijacking of an inner city building and subsequent policy coverage disputes with the property insurer and SASRIA.
• Providing policy coverage and legal liability advice to insurers on several complex professional negligence, fraud and commercial crime matters.

Incident response & breach counsel

• Acting as breach counsel and incident response manager in significant multi-jurisdictional cyber-attack and ransomware events affecting clients in the education, healthcare, insurance, investment management, financial services, logistics, manufacturing, mining, retail and security sectors.
• Advising on threat actor engagement and negotiation strategy in cyber extortion and ransomware events.
• Advising on legality of ransom negotiations, payment and sanctions protocols in ransomware & cyber extortion incidents.
• Advising leading cyber insurers on incident response, coverage and pre-incident planning for claims and incident notifications.

Technology, data and intellectual property

• Successfully defended arbitration proceedings against an international insurer in respect of a professional liability and technology policy coverage dispute pertaining to a leading telecommunications company.
• Defending a leading international brokerage in respect of alleged copyright infringement and unlawful competition claims.
• Advising on the interpretation, negotiation and disputes pertaining to a range of IT agreements including software development, hardware, support and maintenance and master service agreements.
• Providing general corporate governance and risk management advice to directors and officers on emerging risks and technologies including AI and cyber.
• Advising on and managing legal technology delivery and eDiscovery matters in large scale disputes and investigations.
• Advising on and managing data mining reviews regarding personal information in cyber extortion and exfiltration incidents.

Coverage & product development

• Advising  an international insurer on a policy coverage  dispute in respect of a cyber incident regarding a third-party payment administrator and the payment of a ransom.
• Advising insurers on the drafting and development of various policy wordings for use in South Africa, including professional negligence, commercial crime, directors and officers, general liability, property and assets, product liability and cyber.