Legal advisers are lawyers who are employed by large companies or organizations to provide legal advice and services to both the organization and its employees.
Lawyers are generally divided into attorneys and advocates:
Attorneys are general legal practitioners who offer their client services on all legal aspects, including company law, criminal law, taxation, estate planning and personal advice. Attorneys represent their clients in magistrates' courts and generally prepare cases for presentation by an advocate in the High Court.
Advocates specialize in giving legal opinions and presenting cases in court and participate in litigation only when they have been instructed or briefed to do so by an attorney.
Satisfying Aspects
- being a respected member of one's community
- the challenge and variety of the work
- working with people
- possibility of opening one's own practice
- good remuneration and working conditions
Demanding aspects
- working long hours, evenings, and weekends
- preparing cases and talking to clients
- the years of study required before you can practice
- the competition and pressure in this field
Requirements
A legal adviser should:
- be honest and have integrity;
- think analytically and rationally;
- be objective;
- aboe to distinguish facts from irrelevant detail;
- have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written;
- have discretion, diplomacy and tact.
School Subjects
National Senior Certificate meeting degree requirements for a degree course
Compulsory Subjects: English and any other Official Language
Recommended Subjects: Languages, Accounting, History
Training
Law: all universities, RU, US, Wits, UZ, UJ, UL UFH, UCT, UWC, UP, UKZN, NMMU, UL, NWU, UV, UFS, UNISA.
Requirements to register as a lawyer:
- LLB degree from a South African University
- legal training course approved by the Law Society
- two years of service under articles of clerkship with a South African firm of attorneys, or community service at an accredited law clinic or approved office of the Legal Aid Board
- completion of the Attorneys Admission Examination on legal practice and procedures, practical accounting for attorneys, and the functions of an attorney, set by a provincial law society
To practise as an attorney, all candidates must register with a Law Society after having passed all the required examinations.
Employer
- Large companies or organizations
- business firms
- central, provincial or local government
- law schools
- legal aid societies
- self-employment, in private practice
Contact
Law Society of SA
P O Box 36626
Menlo Park, 1729
Tel: (012) 366-8800 Fax: (012) 362-0969
The Law Societies in Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg
www.lssa.org.za