Legal Adviser

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.

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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 specialise 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.

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Personal Requirements

• honest and have integrity
• able to think analytically and rationally
• objective and able to distinguish facts from irrelevant detail
• excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• discretion, diplomacy and tact

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How to Enter

Schooling & School Subjects

National Senior Certificate meeting degree requirements for a degree course

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What to Study

Degree: Law: RU, US, Wits, UZ, UJ, UL UFH, UCT, UWC, 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 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.

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Employment

• business firms
• central, provincial or local government
• law schools
• legal aid societies
• self-employment, in private practice

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Further Information

Law Society of South Africa
304 Brooks Street
Menlo Park
Tel: (012) 366-8800
https://www.lssa.org.za/

The Law Societies in Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg

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Getting Started

• arrange to speak to a legal advisor to obtain first- hand information about this field
• try to obtain vacation work in a law office
• join a debating society and take part in discussions

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Related Occupations

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