Mala Somers

Mala Somers is Head of Legal Risk Management for FirstRand Bank Limited. Mala holds Bachelor of Commerce and LLB degrees, as well as Master of Laws in Banking Law and Corporate Law. She studied at the University Of KwaZulu Natal South Africa and the University of South Africa, and is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa, and conveyancer. Following a short time as a practicing attorney, she has been in the banking industry in South Africa since 2001. Mala has been with the FirstRand group for 5 years in her current role. She has experience in corporate and financial services regulation; commercial, consumer, labour and privacy law; legal risk governance; legal knowledge management; and intellectual property governance. She is the chairperson of the FirstRand Legal Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Committee and the FirstRand Intellectual Property Committee. In her free time, she enjoys reading, running and traveling.