Marlese von Broembsen

Position: Centre for Law and Society
Institution: University of Cape Town
Expertise: Informal economy, Law and development. Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

Marlese von Broembsen is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town. She is a lawyer and has a Master’s in Development Studies. Her work, which focuses on the nexus between poverty, informality, law and development, draws on four years spent working with black-owned informal businesses in townships near Cape Town, as well as many years of policy work for international aid agencies, South African agencies (such as Wesgro, TIPS and the Taylor Commission), the UCT Graduate School of Business, as well as government. She has published on South Africa’s small business development  strategy, labour law and development, private sector preferential procurement, and legal empowerment of the poor. Marlese’s particular interest is in labour market institutions that potentially facilitate the unemployed poor and informal producers participating in global value chains.