Law@work is a self-funded unit within UCT's Faculty of Law. We run short courses, seminars and workshops on topical legal issues. Law@work has presented courses on:

  • Administrative Justice
  • Business turnaround
  • Competition law
  • Compliance Management
  • Estates and Financial Planning
  • Government Contracts and Procurement law
  • International tax law
  • Labour law
  • Legal Writing
  • Negotiation Skills
  • Plain Language Writing
  • Regulatory Compliance in terms of the NCA/CPA and FAIS
  • Understanding Contracts and Reading and Writing legal language

There have also been a number of seminars and workshops presented on Trusts, the Consumer Protection Act, Divorce, and Financial Planning Issues and Alternative Dispute Resolution, The Companies Act, Direct Marketing, and the Protection of Personal Information Bill. In an attempt to assist financial advisors in preparing for their regulatory representative and key-individual exams, we held a number of exam preparation workshops that were of great value to those who attended.

We are continually introducing new courses, examples of which are Muslim Personal Law, Islamic Finance and Banking, Medical Negligence, and seminars on Business Rescue and Advanced Residential Rentals.

Law@work continues to cement its relationship with the Compliance Institute of South Africa in the offering of the Compliance Management course which after 9 years still attracts a large number of attendees from all over the country. Law@work also partners with Getsmarter, a specialist online education company, to offer online courses such as the Paralegal Practitioner course, Business Writing and Legal Documents, Practical Labour Law, Start and Manage a Small Business, Import and Export Management and Occupational Health and Safety. Law@work has also for a number of years been involved with Paddocks Learning and their Sectional Title Scheme Management course.

We are often called upon to compile customised courses for various institutions where training is required for groups within those institutions. You are welcome to contact us in this regard.

What are the benefits of doing a short course offered by UCT Law@work?
There are a number of benefits to doing a short course with us, such as:

  • Participants will receive quality training of a post-graduate standard that is both academic and practical, by experts in the field.
  • The courses are all registered on UCT’s system as a short course with a course ID.
  • The course content is approved by the Dean of the Faculty of Law.
  • Each participant will be registered on the UCT student record system (PeopleSoft) and be allocated a student number for use in perpetuity.
  • Each participant will have access to a record of their attendance via UCT’s Student Records Department.
  • Some courses require that participants undergo a form of assessment to be evaluated for their participation, and others are simply attendance based. After the course has been concluded, each participant will then receive an official serialed UCT certificate, either of attendance (attendance of no less than 80% of the lectures) or completion if assessed (pass mark is 50%). If evaluation occurs and participants do not obtain the requisite pass mark, they will receive a certificate of attendance for having attended the short course.


History
Originally known as the Professional Development Project, the unit was the brainchild of the then Dean of the Faculty, Hugh Corder, and has undergone a number of changes since it was established in 1999. It began with just one staff member in a half-day post, then progressed to a full day post with Irèna Wasserfall as the manager. "PEP", as it was affectionately known at the time, underwent a change in its branding in 2008 and became UCT Law@work: Professional Development Project.

Since the middle of 2011, Law@work has been growing - first to a team of three, and eventually reaching its current size of eight team members.