Sisters In Conversation

Lineo is an advocate and the founder of Nairasha Legal Support - an NGO focused on assisting especially women with their legal issues. She holds a law degree from the National University of Lesotho and a Masters in Law from the University of York. Lineo’s reasons for pursuing a law degree and subsequently channelling her focus on women’s rights are personal. Losing her father who died without a Will caused turmoil in her mother’s and siblings lives and this is what helped her identify that there is a need for legal education for women so that women in Lesotho never have to experience what her mother and family went through. Lineo is a fierce feminist and an activist for women’s rights and believes that a nation is as good as the knowledge it possesses.

Some of you may already know Lineo as the woman who leads the Sister In Law Lesotho chapter. She previously hosted a workshop in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. I hope you’re inspired by this episode.

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Palesa obtained her LLB from Wits University whereafter she completed her articles at ENS - Africa’s largest law firm. During her short tenure as an associate at ENS, her previous boss and team offered her position as a director at a new sports law firm they had incorporated. Excited for the new challenge, Palesa packed her bags and never looked back. After years of practice, Palesa is now a director at Lawton’s Africa. She specializes in commercial litigation, entertainment and sports law. She regularly provides specialist advice to clients across diverse sectors in commercial litigation, mediation and alternative dispute resolution.

If you have had your eye on sports and entertainment law then this is the episode for you.

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Send in a voice message and tell us what you thought of this episode or suggest a black woman in the legal profession whose story you would like to hear: https://anchor.fm/tebello-motshwane/message —- To book a consultation email [email protected] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tebello-motshwane/message --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tebello-motshwane/message

Refilwe Sekobe was born and raised in Mafikeng in the North West. She is a 23-year-old Candidate Attorney and holds an LLB and an LLM in Commercial law, both from the University of Johannesburg.

Refilwe has served in leadership structures and through those structures, she has been actively involved in community service. She served in the executive committee of the Accounting club in high school, through which they raised funds to purchase non-perishables for orphanages. She joined BLASC-UJ and served in the sub-committee which was responsible for organising mentorship for schools around Johannesburg.

She is passionate about mentorship and continuing legal education. She joined SASLAW pro bono clinic as an intern where free labour law legal services were rendered to the public. She became an academic tutor for Business Law in her final year of her LLB till her Masters year.

She joined the Gauteng South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (SAC- IAWJ) Mentorship Programme. Through the programme, she was mentored by Advocate Aasifa Salduker of Group One Advocates which provided exposure to the legal field as experienced by female legal practitioners. Tag us on Instagram @sister_in_law_ and @fifisekobe

Don’t forget to rate and review the show if you’re listening on Apple podcast. Sister In Law merchandise is available on the website shop: www.sisterinlaw.co.za (part of the proceeds go towards the Sister In Law Foundation which assists black female law students from less advantaged backgrounds). Send in a voice message and tell us what you thought of this episode or suggest a black woman in the legal profession whose story you would like to hear: https://anchor.fm/tebello-motshwane/message —- To book a consultation email [email protected] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tebello-motshwane/message

Grace Gichanga is an admitted attorney having obtained her LLB from WITS. Her experience spans over 10 years across both private practice and the public sector in disciplines that range from corporate and commercial law to transfer pricing.

In response to her original calling as to why she studied law, Grace founded Masenze South Africa in 2018 which focused on basic literacy workshops across various townships and the inner city. This resulted in over 50 workshops over 2 years. It is in this time and while studying the Social Entrepreneurship program at Gibs, that she first came up with the idea of LUMA a legal literacy chatbot available on familiar and accessible chat platforms to assist everyday South Africans on their legal journey.

I really had a fulfilling conversation with Grace because it was reaffirmation that the work we do on the ground in educating people, especially women about the law, should not be taken for granted and it also highlighted that access to justice and to the law is still a luxury for many many South Africans. I hope this episode encourages you to introspect and remember your “why”, why law?

If you enjoyed this episode or can’t wait to give it a listen, share it on Instagram. Tag us on @sister_in_law_ and @lumalaw

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Sister In Law merchandise is available on the website shop: www.sisterinlaw.co.za (part of the proceeds go towards the Sister In Law Foundation which assists black female law students from less advantaged backgrounds).

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Rorisang Mzozoyana holds a BA LLB (Rhodes University), LLM (WITS) in addition, she holds various certificates in property finance; training and development.

 

She is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa with over 14 years’ legal experience. Rorisang completed her articles at Bowmans in 2009. And in 2011 she moved to New York for 18 months where she worked for a Global Corporate Law Firm called Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton which was a life changing experience for her. She got to work on finance deals with some of the biggest corporations on Wall Street and on her return to South Africa she worked for Norton Rose Fulbright before moving to one of the big SA Banks as Senior Legal Counsel – Vice President. Rorisang’s area of practice is Property Finance and she advises on commercial property finance transactions across South Africa and the rest of the continent.

 

She previously lectured real estate law at WITS and until 3 years ago she was on the committee of the Women in Property Network (Western Cape). Rorisang’s other accolades include being listed as Mail & Guardian Top200 Young South Africans in 2017.

 

As a thought leader in the legal profession she has published a number of legal articles in online and hardcopy media including Business Day, Moneyweb, Without Prejudice, Asset Publishing, Linked-In and her blog “Of Counsel”. She was featured on the cover of the September 2020 issue of the digital property magazine Provocate and has facilitated, moderated and/or presented at seminars, workshops and webinars hosted by big law firms and banks in New York and South Africa as well as industry bodies like the Women in Property Network and the South African Property Owners Association.

 

Lastly, Rorisang is the founder and CEO of the company Of Counsel which she runs as a passion project. Of Counsel has the ambitious goal of changing how we think about, learn about and practice law. The company also aims to promote innovation, design thinking and digital transformation within the legal industry. Her and her team are working on a few projects to achieve these objects which they will hopefully be rolling out in the next few months.

 

And on a personal front, Rorisang is a mother to 3 gorgeous girls (6 years, 2 years and 6 months) and a wife. She’s a wine enthusiast and loves cooking and exploring the Western Cape with her family.

Website: https://ofcounsel.co.za/

Tag us on Instagram and share with your friends @sister_in_law_ and @rori_legalcounsel

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Tshepiso is a co-founder and director at Tumbo Scott and an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa. She is a consumer protection law specialist and has experience in corporate and commercial law, competition law, labour law, constitutional law, public interest litigation, telecommunications law and dispute resolution. Tshepiso completed her articles of clerkship at leading South African law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, before proceeding to work as a corporate associate within the firm where she assisted in various complex commercial transactions. Tshepiso thereafter worked as a senior law clerk and advisor to two acting Justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa (namely Justice Mbha of the Supreme Court of Appeal and Justice Mojapelo, the Deputy Judge President of the South Gauteng High Court), working in a research and advisory role to the judges regarding some of the high profile cases in South Africa during her tenure.

 

After her time at the Court, Tshepiso proceeded to establish Tumbo Scott while completing her doctoral thesis in mercantile law through the University of South Africa. Tshepiso holds an LLB and an LLM in mercantile law from the University of Pretoria and holds an LLD in mercantile law (specialising in consumer protection law) from the University of South Africa. She also holds a certificate from Labournet in initiating and chairing of disciplinary hearings. Tshepiso has publications in peer-reviewed law journals and has facilitated undergraduate and post-graduate lectures at tertiary institutions in South Africa in the areas of company law, consumer law, commercial law, and international take-overs and re-organisations.

 

Within Tumbo Scott, she has advised clients on various agreements and situations within the corporate governance, legislative reform, transactional, commercial, telecommunications, advertising and labour spaces. She has also facilitated a number of workshops for various audiences, including a large corporate entity, in connection with the Competition Act 89 of 1998, the King IV Code of Corporate Governance; the Companies Act 71 of 2008; and general commercial legal compliance.

 

Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram @sister_in_law_ @tshepisoscott

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Khanya Mase is a fierce defender for human rights and is a development practitioner who has 4 years post-undergraduate experience working in various fields including non-governmental organisations, inter-governmental organisations, national human rights commissions, academia, and semi corporate within the mining and extractives environment.

By profession she works as a Company Secretary at the South African Women in Mining Association (SAWIMA).

By God’s divine intervention, she is a mother to a 7-year-old.

She went to an all-girls high school and after taking a gap year, she enrolled for an LLB at Wits. During her studies she was involved in the fees must fall movement which was one of the first signals of her commitment to social justice. Like many undergraduate law scholars, she had dreams of working at a big 5 law firm and it was in her third year of her studies after doing vac-work where she realised the corporate environment was not a good fit for her. In response to this realization, she later on in the year took up a job as a field worker at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) where she conducted research and interviews on a case involving informal traders. This experience coupled with her academic devotion to Constitutional law leaned her towards a career focused on human rights. She is also the recipient of the Wits Michael Schewitz award 2015, was a Deans List scholar and a member of the Golden Key.

Upon completing her LLB, she pursued her masters with the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria and completed her mini dissertation on an exchange programme in Kenya with the University of Nairobi on the rights of informal traders.

While in Nairobi she worked as a Legal Intern at an NGO dealing with Governance issues called Katiba Institute. Her time in Kenya coincided with the 2017 elections, and propped her further into the practical side of Democratisation and Governance. Upon her return to South Africa in 2018, she applied for an internship with UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Kenya, however, due to various factors could not make the move to Kenya on an interns budget.

In light of this, it was only fitting that she join the South African Human Rights Commission. She worked as a Legal Research Intern under the CEO of the Commission. Throughout the year she explored various other opportunities including working as a Legal and Governance Intern at the Graca Machel Trust which ignited her passion for Corporate Governance within the NGO sector. She also worked for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as a Human Rights Intern.

In the summer of 2018, she received a job offer to work as a full-time lecturer in the school of law at Varsity College Pretoria. She worked in that role for 8 months and in March of that year assumed her role as a part-time Company Secretary with SAWIMA. She joined the company full time in July 2019 and has been with the company since.

Outside of law, she is an aspiring farmer and is working towards starting a renewable energy business. She also wants to start building her own property investment portfolio and looks forward to one day doing her pupillage as she endeavors to contribute meaningfully to the human rights discourse and propel the development agenda in Africa within the African Union.

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Sinenhlanhla Mthembu holds a bachelor's degree in Law and is an Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa. Whilst employed by a law firm, she realized how unhappy she was in that environment, which was not doing any good for her mental health. She tried looking for other legal related jobs and didn't succeed. Resigning and going back home was not an option nor was staying at her previous employment.

That's when the idea of starting her own firm came about. It is something she had always wanted to do but much later on in her career. The decision to take the plunge was influenced by her loved ones who believed that she could definitely do it. With their support and her drive, she started putting her ducks in a row with the whole application process, getting her firm registered and saving towards all the things she would need after resigning from her job.

When everything was in order she then decided to resign from her job and hit the ground running with her firm.

Being thrown in the deep end many times throughout her employment forced her to swim and that’s how she has survived the challenges of running her firm.

Outside of her profession Sne is a content creator, YouTuber and influencer a passion for anything beauty, fashion and lifestyle related. She is also a self taught make up artist and founder of a clothing line. 

She enjoys sharing tips with her Instagram followers and YouTube Subscribers; from how to style jeans to how to look boujie on a budget.

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Thabile Gcabashe was born in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal. She studied at Wits University and obtained her LLB cum laude.

Thereafter, Thabile completed her articles at a boutique law firm in Sandton and after working there for 2,5years she was approached by another law firm in Sandton where she now works as an associate with her main areas of practise being commercial litigation with a specific focus on insurance law.

Outside her 9-5 job, Thabile runs her own coaching business where she coaches phenomenal 9-5er working women on how to align their mindset in order to launch their dream (side) businesses and live a freedom based lifestyle.

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Lethabo Sithole is an independent legal consultant and researcher in the international trade law and investment law areas of practice. She has a combination of private sector and policy experience. In recent years, she has worked closely with trade finance institutions and development organisations on strategies to enhance intra-African trade and investment flows and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lethabo has been involved in a series of roundtables involving key negotiators and decision-makers on how to leverage Southern-Africa and Africa-Middle East trade relations post-COVID.

Lethabo holds a Master of Laws in International Business Law from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). As a researcher, she has focused her interest on the African Continental Free Trade Area and regional integration; investment treaties, Foreign Direct Investment and investor-state relations; non-tariff barriers and Trade Facilitation Measures; trade policy reforms such as Infant Industry Protection and local content requirements.

As a young African leader and dreamer, Lethabo is also an investor and entrepreneur. She is the founding director of Rhengu Group, which is a collection of companies that offer expertise on building circular, resilient and sustainable societies. Rhengu seeks to make its mark in the African manufacturing space as two of its subsidiaries focus on the revitalisation of the steel industry as well as the R&D of green building materials and techniques.

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Sister In Law merchandise is available on the website shop: www.sisterinlaw.co.za (part of the proceeds go towards the Sister In Law Foundation which assists black female law students from less advantaged backgrounds).

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