Becoming an attorney in South Africa is not a difficult task. All you need is to complete your LLB degree and then register for articles of clerkship at any registered law firm. However, before you can do this, you must first meet some requirements.
Studying LLB
To become an attorney in South Africa, you will need to complete a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree. This can be obtained through two different routes: 1) Studying at a university and obtaining your LLB degree or 2) Passing the National Senior Certificate (matric) exam and completing either a one-year law conversion course or an honours bachelor’s degree.
The most common way to complete your LLB is by studying at a university. You’ll study all aspects of the law—both South African and international—as well as business management, history, economics and politics. The other option is to pass matric with six subjects including English as your home language if English isn’t your first language and then complete either an honours bachelor’s degree or a one-year law conversion course.
You can do your LLB degree at any South African university that allows you to study LLB right after passing matric and meeting the admission requirements of the university. Doing vacation work at a registered law firm.
Do an internship at a registered law firm in South Africa. You can do this right after passing matric and meeting the admission requirements of your preferred university.
Why should you do vacation work? Vacation work is an opportunity for you to get first-hand experience in legal practices, it is also a chance for you to learn more about the legal profession and how it operates on a day-to-day basis.
To do vacation work at any registered law firm, there are certain basic requirements that all applicants must meet:
- You must have completed your LLB degree from any recognized university in South Africa
- You must have obtained at least 50% for your final exam (50% overall) during your final year of study
- You need not be employed or registered as an attorney with any professional body (such as SAIPLA), although this can help increase one’s chances of being offered a placement
Becoming an attorney
In South Africa, to become an attorney you need to:
- study law at a recognized institution (university)
- pass your bar exams (South African Law Society)
After completing your LLB degree and registering for articles of clerkship, you need to do a minimum of two years of work at a law firm. You can do this through an internship or by being employed within the practice. You will be required to complete these tasks before writing your final year exams. Once you have passed all four papers, which include Constitutional Law and Procedure, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Contract Law; you will then be eligible to apply for registration as an attorney in South Africa.
After completing your articles and doing your final year exams, you are entitled to register as an attorney in South Africa. Being registered means you can practice law anywhere in the world. This is because there is no international agreement which states that only people who have trained at a specific university or training institution can be allowed to practice law.
However, it is important to note that there are still some restrictions on where one can practice law. For example, if you want to work as an attorney for an international company such as Coca-Cola or Google then this will require special permission from the relevant authority in South Africa (e-mail info@sahqcounselors.co)
Conclusion
Becoming an attorney in South Africa is a long and arduous one, and it requires you to be very motivated. But if you keep your eyes on the prize and work hard enough, you can achieve anything!
