Halton Cheadle is a founding partner of Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Inc. He was admitted in 1977, and specialises in labour law, constitutional law, administrative law, municipal law and legislative drafting.

Halton is the first South African to sit on the International Labour Organisation’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), and is currently also an Emeritus Professor of Public Law at the University of Cape Town.

He has extensive experience in legislative drafting and has participated in the drafting of the Bill of Rights in the final Constitution, various labour statutes including the Labour Relations Act, 1995, the National Economic Development and Labour Council Act, 1994 and the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996. He was the principal drafter of the Skills Development Act, 1998. He recently drafted the Minimum Wage Act, as well as the amendments to the Labour Relations Act and the Code of Good Practice: Collective Bargaining, Industrial Action & Picketing and the Accord on Collective Bargaining & Industrial Action.

He has also participated in the drafting of other laws such as the Special Pensions Bill, the Electoral Bill, and the Public Administration Management Bill, 2014. He has also drafted labour laws as part of labour law reform in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Tanzania, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Halton has also authored and edited various books and journal articles on labour and constitutional law.

He has been an acting judge in the High Court and the Labour Court. Halton received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1970 and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Hons) (Cum Laude) in 1972, both from the University of Natal. He followed this with a B Proc in 1976 at the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Cum Laude) in 1980 from the University of Witwatersrand.