Yande Mankanda (left) and Simba Gomwe (right) - December 2019

Linklaters, with its head office in London, provides a fantastic opportunity each year for law students from South African universities to participate in a four-week clerkship in the UK.   Participants work alongside experienced lawyers in two different practice areas and gain insights through professional development sessions.

Two UCT Law students – Simbarashe Gomwe and Yande Mankanda - participated in the November-December 2019 African Clerkship.  Simba Gomwe reports that the Clerkship was structured “to give real commercial experience on a global scale …. I was one of 5 African Clerks and there were 5 Indian Clerks and 8 Australian Clerks. We sat in two ‘seats’ or departments for two weeks respectively in the firm where we were given work and supervised by principals”.

Simba’s two seats were in the Energy and Infrastructure Group and the Financial Regulations Group.  In addition to weekly project assignments, the Clerks participated in practice group seminars, providing insight into other areas of Linklaters’ work, and into the matters worked on for multinationals and other corporates across 20 different countries.

The Clerkship, though, was not all work – there was 5-a-side soccer, social events for networking (including ice-skating and theatre), cocktail receptions and dinners providing a well-rounded professional law experience in London.

Mr Gomwe clearly made a great impression and has been offered a training contract following completion of his UCT LLB.  Big congratulations from the Faculty, Simba!