5 minute read
Legal
CONQUERING THE MALE-DOMINATED LITIGATION SPACE
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By Dumisani Hlatswayo
While female lawyers remain underrepresented in the ligation space, many young women don’t let the snail’s transformation progress discourage them. Demi Pretorius is one such woman.
Demi has fond memories of her childhood before she was admitted as attorney: “I grew up in Pniël, a small town near Stellenbosch. The benefit that I had was that I didn’t have just my parents taking care of me and supporting me, but the whole community as well,” she says.
Demi has always been opinionated and brave to speak out about various issues. Those two etiquettes coupled with a desire to help people were significant motivating factors in choosing the law career path. Today Demi is a Senior Associate in the commercial, property, and litigation department of Adams & Adams based in Pretoria.
As a litigation specialist, she predominantly deals with document intensive cases across multiple fields, including contract, company, and insolvency law. She is also routinely requested to conduct corporate and procurement related investigations in collaboration with Adams Forensics, the forensic leg of Adams & Adams. She holds two degrees: a BCom Law and an LLB degree from the University of Stellenbosch.
Demi made the most out of her time at university. While most students focused only on attending classes, Demi made time to help other students as well. She sat on the Student Council of the law faculty and was a mentor in her university residence.
Her first involvement with Adams and Adams was around 2011, prior to commencing her LLB degree, when she was interviewed for a bursary. Ten years later, Demi is employed by the same firm. “I advise clients on how best to resolve or avoid disputes, focusing on solutions that make business sense. When I start a new matter, I look at all the relevant facts, and I consider that against the legal framework to assess the merits of the case” she says.
“I then advise clients on the legal remedies available and how best to achieve their desired outcome. If that involves litigation, I make sure the client understands the different phases in the litigation process and the pros and cons of every decision. I work closely with advocates to get the matter ready for a hearing before a judge or arbitrator. The preparation involves a lot of research and procedural arrangements,” adds Demi.
With the fourth industrial revolution vigorously forcing companies to transform, law firms also had to adapt to changes. “The shift to digitising our law practices has been exciting and has brought about major efficiencies. Most court hearings are now conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams, which cuts traveling time and costs.”
Women in the legal profession are still on the back foot in comparison with their male counterparts. Sexism and lack of gender transformation are the issues that still dog this industry that employs about 27200 people in South Africa.
According to Demi, transformation should promote equal opportunities, enable exposure and equal representation. While she believes South Africa still has a long way to go, Demi believes it is still possible to achieve those three fundamental goals.
Focusing on the legal profession she says: “Although the legal fraternity is welcoming to all people from different walks of life, more should be done to develop and promote young practitioners, particularly women and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. One solution is to afford those individuals opportunities to work with experienced seniors where the environment is conducive to organic skills transfer and otherwise provide exposure to quality legal work. There is value in diversity, and we must embrace it.
There is a responsibility on all legal practitioners to promote skills transfer. I would encourage senior professionals to keep an open dialogue with youngsters entering the legal profession and more freely share accounts of their successes and mishaps. We often overlook that sharing stories of our failures can help others to reap the benefits of a lesson without having to take the same detour – it has potential to accelerate growth and can be of great value in the litigation space which is a fast-paced environment,” she says. The misconception that women litigators are less capable of doing their job persists. Many people still think women, especially female lawyers of colour, are not good enough to be in the field. The assumption that race and gender determine potential perpetuates this belief.
“I am fortunate to work in a firm where the overwhelming majority of professionals are women. That said, the profession remains male-dominated, and it is easy to start believing that only men can be exceptional litigators if that is all you are exposed to. Representation is important and I believe that as more female lawyers make their mark as experts in their fields and leaders in their firms, more young women will be encouraged to enter, and stay in, the profession. This could change the narrative over time.” says Demi.
Demi’s tip to business owners is straightforward: “Invest in good legal advice at the time when you enter into a business transaction and conduct frequent risk assessments in your business. Costly and protracted litigation generally flows from poorly drafted contracts and surface level problems that go unresolved for long periods,” cautions Demi.”
Her advice to anyone who wishes to pursue a career in private practice: “Seek out shadowing opportunities. Most legal firms have vacation work programmes which they advertise on their websites; find a mentor in your field of interest; or befriend a final year student and touch base with them in the next year to gain insight into the inner workings of a law firm.”
One of the hardest lessons she has learnt is: Working longer hours doesn’t necessarily lead to increased productivity and could lead to burnout. We are multifaceted beings and need stimulation from various areas in our life to excel at work.”
Demi unwinds by watching documentaries on Netflix and listening to podcasts on Spotify. She says exercising is her biggest stress reliever.
