Legal Secretaries 2025

Legal Secretary Image

13 - 14 March 2025

INDABA HOTEL, FOURWAYS, Sandton.
Virtual: MS Teams & ZOOM

For more information please contact our Offices:

Tel: +27 87 802 9998 / +27 87 802 9076

Email: admin@bizstrat.co.za

OVERVIEW

Despite the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, the legal fraternity has bounced back exceptionally well and has fast-tracked the legal industry into the digital age. The pandemic led to a myriad of challenges with lockdowns in place, which introduced innovations such as CaseLines in South African courts.

Legal Secretaries and Administrators were called upon to perform a variety of duties previously handled by attorneys and candidate attorneys. Given these developments, a Legal Secretary in an organization must be well-versed with legal processes, court protocols, and the new technologies being utilized in legal departments.

BizStrat’s Legal Secretary 2024 workshop will address the latest trends within the legal fraternity, including CaseLines, Virtual Meetings, and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). This workshop seeks to empower and upskill Legal Secretaries and Administrators to be more effective in their roles in the New Normal.

Who Must Attend:

  • Legal Secretaries
  • Paralegals
  • Office Managers
  • Legal Administrators
  • Secretaries in Legal Departments
  • Secretaries in Compliance Departments
  • PAs to Legal Directors
  • PAs to Company Secretaries

Facilitated By: Adv. Alexia Vosloo - De Witt, LLB, Audiometry (NQF 5)

Current Practicing Advocate of the High Court of South Africa since 2013, Adv. Alexia Vosloo - De Witt focuses on Commercial, Corporate, Contractual, & Human Rights matters, chairing enquiries, and administrative boards. Her expertise spans Labour Law, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Family and Divorce Law, Harassment and Protection Orders, Contract Law, and Commercial Law, as well as Air, Space, and Telecommunications Law.

Adv. Vosloo - De Witt acts as a training facilitator for several training companies. Courses she has presented include Employment Equity, Labour Law, chairing a Disciplinary Hearing, Nuts and Bolts of Labour Law (How to Present Your Case), Consumer Protection Act, and Sexual Harassment.

Her previous international clients include Projex CI Telecommunications Company Guinea, where she assisted with legal compliance in Labour Law and Telecommunications and Infrastructure. She has comprehensive training experience, involving the development and implementation of internationally benchmarked curricula, lecturing at the tertiary level, and corporate training as a facilitator.

Image of Gary Brown
Day 1

08:00-08:30 Registration & Early Morning Tea & Coffee

08:30 Introduction

08:35 Workshop Commences

SYNOPSIS OF THE EXECUTIVE LEGAL PA/ ADMIN ROLE

Legal Secretaries play an important administrative support role either in a law firm or an Advocates’ practice. They can also be referred to as legal assistants or paralegals, and are crucial in the litigation process by preparing court documents, researching, maintaining calendars, and typing legal documents.

UNDERSTANDING THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT

  • Introduction
  • What is Law
  • Sources of Law
  • The Divisions of Law
  • Substantive Law
  • Procedural Law

10:00-10:30 Morning Teas, Coffee, & Networking

THE COURT STRUCTURE

  • Constitutional court
  • Appeal court
  • Higher courts
  • Lower courts
  • Tribunals
  • The stare decisis rule
  • Jurisdiction, venue and limitations

THE LITIGATION PROCESS

  • Criminal Law
    • Pre-Litigation
    • Litigation
    • Post Litigation
  • Civil Law
    • Pre-Litigation
    • Litigation
    • Post Litigation
  • Liquidated Claims

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch & Networking

CASELINES:

  • How to register on Caselines
  • How to view my cases
  • Load documents into case
  • Rename documents for the case index
  • Navigating my case
  • Invite another person to the case
  • Download the bundle or index for printing

SELECTED APPLICATIONS

  • POPI Act
  • Legal Ethics
  • Intellectual Property
  • Commissions of Enquiry, Administrative Proceedings, & Disciplinary Hearings

15:30 Q & A

16:00 End of Day 1

Day 2

08:00-08:30 Online Registration & Log In

08:30 Recap of the previous day

ADVANCED MICROSOFT EXCEL APPLICATION

  • Practical and useful tips and tricks for Excel in the legal practice
  • Compiling litigation process chronologies with Excel
  • Compiling Fact chronologies, records management with Excel
  • Time and Billing Procedures
  • Reports: Graphs and graphics
  • Pivot tables
  • Filtering information in tables

Document Preparation in Various Legal Areas

Understanding Jurisdiction, Venue & Statutes of Limitations

10:00-10:30 Mid-Morning Break

LEGAL RESEARCH

An Executive Legal Secretary must be armed with effective research skills. This is because, as an administrative support staff, they will often be required to provide legal research on a particular topic within short time frames. Legal research assists Legal Practitioners in focusing on the facts of the case and identifying the point of law in a disputed issue. It also helps in preparing arguments for court.

PRACTICE DIRECTIVES

This is a critical aspect in the life of an Executive Legal Secretary. Practice Directives are issued by a Court to provide guidance on required procedure in each Court division. Although they do not have the same force of law as legislation, they express the Court’s view on practice and procedure matters. Litigants and practitioners are expected to comply with them or provide a good reason for non-compliance.

12:00 EQ (Emotional Intelligence) in the Workplace

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch & Networking

13:30 EQ (Emotional Intelligence) in the Workplace

14:30 Wrap & Certificate Hand-out & End of Workshop

14:45 Pamper Session @ the Mowana SPA, Indaba Hotel

Terms and Conditions: Please read carefully.

The following Ts & Cs apply:

  • All payments to be made directly to Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat, Payment is required in full, 5 days from date of invoice.
  • No seats will be reserved, unless otherwise agreed to by Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat.
  • Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat reserves the right to change speakers, program content, date and venue, due to circumstances beyond the control of Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat.
  • The signed registration form is a legally binding document.
  • The conference / workshop fee includes conference / workshop material, Lunches, and refreshments.
  • Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat is not liable for travel and accommodation expenses unless otherwise stated in writing.

Cancellations

  • All cancellations will be subject to approval by Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat management.
  • All cancellations made 14 working days prior to date of the mentioned event will be subject to a 50% cancellation fee.
  • Cancellations made within 7 days or less of date of the mentioned event, will be subject to a 100% cancellation fee.
  • There will be no refunds or credit vouchers unless agreed to by BizStrat Management in writing.

Substitutions

  • Delegates, or any substitutions, must notify Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat in writing.
  • There is no charge for substitutions. Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat will not be held liable for incorrect delegate details on certificates due to late substitutions being made on the day of the conference/ workshop.

Views expressed by speakers and facilitators are not necessarily those of Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat.

Company Information

Delegate Information



Signature


Venue Attendance


Payment Information

  • Bank Transfer: Servigraph 30 cc t/a BizStrat.
  • Bank: First National Bank
  • Branch Name: Randburg Commercial Suite
  • Account No: 62322454422
  • Branch Code: 250655
  • Swift Code: FIRNZAJJ

Note: Credit card payments accepted. Contact our Offices for the Processing of Credit Cards.