Working at Legal Aid South Africa

 

Your gateway to the legal profession

Legal Aid South Africa is the biggest law firm on the African continent. It boasts a unique pedigree of socially conscious legal professionals, who, in their everyday work, defend and protect the rights of the country’s most vulnerable groups including women, children, the elderly and the landless by providing legal advice and representation in both criminal and civil matters.

Legal Aid SA is an independent statutory body established by the Legal Aid South Africa Act (No. 39 of 2014). The objective of Legal Aid SA is to make available legal assistance to the indigent and vulnerable at State expense.

Through its Candidate Attorney Recruitment Programme (approximately 600 Candidate Attorneys are recruited at any given time), Legal Aid SA provides an invaluable gateway to the legal profession and has made an enormous contribution to the transformation of the profession. The organisation has over 2000 legal staff in its employment.

Once legal practitioners have been recruited, Legal Aid SA offers them a comprehensive career path, which offers opportunity for specialisation in criminal and civil law.

Download our Candidate Attorney Recruitment Programme brochure (3MB) pdf, or view it online here: 

Further opportunities are created for advanced levels of legal practice in the organisation’s High Court Units and in the role of Senior Litigator. In addition, legal professionals are afforded the opportunity to follow the legal manager stream by advancing through the ranks to become a High Court Unit Manager, Head of Office and can even progress to the senior executive level of Provincial Executive and National Operations Executive. The organisation offers specialist/technical opportunities in the form of legal training, development and research and also has a specialist role of Call Centre Manager, who manages the Legal Aid Advice Team, which provides legal advice telephonically to those who require it. 

Join us to:

  • Build a reputation of being a tenacious and professional provider of legal services;
  • Make our Constitution a reality in lives of our people;
  • Build new research skills and techniques for trials;
  • Be exposed to various intervention programmes to train and develop your legal competencies, and
  • Ensure effective access to justice for the poor and vulnerable.

Professionals that we employ:

  • Legal Professionals
  • IT Specialists
  • Human Resources Professionals
  • Finance Professionals
  • Corporate Communication Specialists
  • Corporate Services

Skills Training

Legal Aid SA’s skills training programme includes a combination of both legal and support interventions.

Bursaries

Legal Aid SA offers bursaries to employees for courses that would enhance their performance in their current roles. On obtaining their qualifications, the employees are required to remain in service for a period equal to their studies. If they leave the organisation, they are required to settle the bursary amount in full.

Employee Assistance Programmes

  • Telephonic counselling;
  • Face to face counselling,
  • Emergency trauma counselling and training;
  • VCT, HIV and AIDS counselling and support;
  • Life skills training, and
  • Stress management and lifestyle management.

Succession Planning

Legal Aid SA has a staff succession planning programme, which involves the identifying and developing of talent to create a level of preparedness to deal with changes in critical positions. The succession planning candidates go through a formal external executive development programme facilitated by the Wits Business School