Do you mind if I work weekends?

We do believe that everyone should have a healthy balance between their work and personal life, but if you do want to work weekends to catch up, or do whatever you need to do, our offices and facilities are always accessible to you and we'll support you in whichever way we can.

Do you mind if I work from home?

But we'll miss you! We want you to enjoy the buzz of working with a great team, and to be involved in what's happening – so bottom-line? We want you to "be part of it" and for that, you really need to be here – when you're at work, you are exposed to different views, alternative ideas, new concepts and you can brainstorm, chat to colleagues, make a noise, have silence, take time-out, eat amazing gourmet food and do whatever you need to do to grow, learn, play and become all you can be.

However, if the occasion should arise that you need to work from home for whatever reason, we do make exceptions, and laptops are available which allow you to connect remotely.

What further training do you offer and how will I "learn the ropes"?

We are firm believers in the merits of on-the-job training – it's there, working at the coalface with a skilled and experienced attorney, where you'll feel the satisfaction that comes from providing an inspired solution for your client. Your theoretical training at university is essential to give you the base of legal knowledge on which to build, but only practical experience of real problem solving makes an exceptional attorney. All principals at ENSafrica are required to involve their CAs as deeply as possible in their practices and their own performance is rated according to the training they deliver.

Additionally, the firm has a professor of law who works as a full time knowledge advisor to our practitioners. Where there is a gap in the knowledge of CAs or other practitioners, we make use of his exceptional knowledge and experience to inform and educate through one-on-one training sessions, seminars, workshops or lectures.

In addition we offer an accredited in-house Practical Legal Training course, and hold in-house lectures every week.

Can I bring my parrot to work?

if your parrot does not talk, shed feathers and make a mess, it is welcome on your desk.

Please take note that no bird seed will be provided and you will need to bring your own or order our seed loaf from the restaurant at breakfast :)

If I studied in one location may I apply for articles at any of your other offices?

Absolutely yes, provided of course you are able to move to another location at your own cost and have the necessary support structures in place that you can personally rely on to support you.

What is your position on social responsibility?

We believe that everyone has a contribution to make to society and at ENSafrica we aim to play our part.

ENSafrica is committed to providing access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay for legal advice, and we do so through our pro bono offices which are established in impoverished areas, such as Alexandra (Johannesburg) and Mitchells Plain (Cape Town). These offices, which were the first of their kind in South Africa, provide free, high-quality LEGAL SERVICES to the community, from within the heart of the community.

Each of ENSafrica's lawyers, regardless of rank (from Chairman to CA), render a minimum of 32 hours of pro bono service per annum to this initiative, 50% more than is required by the Law Society.

ENSafrica further provides pro bono services to a variety of causes and projects and donates funding and resources to a number of community-based interest groups.

Where are you offices?

ENSafrica operates as one firm through fully-integrated offices across Africa. We currently have six offices in South Africa and a growing presence throughout Africa. Our offices don't operate by means of a network or as an alliance, nor do we adopt a ‘Swiss Verein' approach. Instead, we work as one team and one firm across countries.

Why should I apply to do my articles at ENSafrica?

ENSafrica is Africa's largest and fastest growing commercial law firm. Our success stems from a difference in approach – we're not about grey suits and old school ties; we focus on problem-solving and are passionate about creativity, excellence and client service. We believe that there is strength in diversity and we're into developing our people; after all, our people are our only assets. We love what we do, because of who we do it with – we are about being in Africa, for Africa.

How many CAs do you recruit and retain?

We generally take in between 50 – 100 new CAs a year and our records show that we offer post-articles positions to most of our CAs. In fact, we want to keep on as many of our CAs as we possibly can! When we recruit, we are recruiting for the firm's future partners, no less.

What is the company culture and style?

To forge our firm's culture we first asked each and every employee to define the values that he and she thought should underpin our organisation. This on-going process of collating ideas, refining them, getting the concepts into one concise document, and then testing our renderings by holding a number of workshops to get more inputs, took us almost a year, but we didn't stop there. To us this is an "ever-green" and we are constantly relooking at our vision and approach so that we continue to create a firm that represents our people and where they want to go.

ENSafrica is also a firm that "parties" – there are numerous events and functions throughout the year in which teams and employees at different levels can participate. Some choose to play action cricket, some soccer, still others, touch-rugby or cycling. There is something for everyone, including monthly social functions such as month-end drinks.

"Behind the scenes", we strive to cultivate an environment in which people can "get together" – be it for a breakfast or a lunch break, just to chat and catch up on various matters – we believe strongly that these ad hoc meetings encourage team building and collaboration at all levels but in a spontaneous and dynamic way.

We have purposely created spaces and an environment within the firm that supports these types of interactions and we've tried to make the workspace itself creatively appealing so that it is a place our people can call home.

How do you deal with CA rotation?

We have an intelligent rotation policy, which allows us to adapt our approach based on each candidate's needs and requirements. We believe flexibility is the name of the game, and we go to great lengths to ensure we get the "best fit" for each individual in order to ensure that they realise their career goals as quickly as possible.

To this end we engage with our CAs at the end of each six month period to determine their personal aspirations and preferences in order to find the solution for them that will best achieve what they want as fast as possible. It is also important to realise that a few months' experience in any one area of law is not sufficient to truly get an understanding of that area of practice – experience only comes with time and therefore to ensure that rotation is done intelligently and only when applicable is extremely important in ensuring the ongoing happiness of our CAs and the success of their careers.

Does ENSafrica encourage further study?

Yes, we encourage specialisation in our attorneys so that we can deliver cutting edge solutions. We therefore think further study is an excellent idea. However, we believe that CAs have more than enough to learn during their articles without having to study in the evenings, so our policy is that further study is encouraged after admission rather than during articles. And as long as your course of study is relevant to the work you'll be doing, we'll be happy to pay for it – we want you to be the best you can be.

What kind of work do you do?

The work we do encompasses the full spectrum of commercial law, from mergers and acquisitions (M&A), competition, employment and insolvency, through commercial litigation, property, environmental, forensics, IP, tax, oil and gas, mining and finance. There's something for everyone here.

Do you have a Vac programme?

Click here to find out more.

What are africENS really like back at the ranch?

We believe our people are problem solvers, always looking for innovative solutions when faced with an obstacle – they challenge the status quo to make things that little bit better or more edgy for our clients. ENSafrica employees are diverse, brave individuals, unfazed by what has been "done before" and what others may think "cannot be done" – they are truly looking to add value and make a difference – to the less fortunate in our society, and to one another.

training and development

We are firm believers in the merits of on-the-job training – it's there, working at the coalface with a skilled and experienced attorney, where you'll feel the satisfaction that comes from providing an inspired solution for your client. Your theoretical training at university is essential to give you the base of legal knowledge on which to build, but only practical experience of real problem solving makes an exceptional attorney. All principals at ENS are obliged to involve their CA's as deeply as possible in their practices and their own performance is rated according to the training they deliver.

Additionally, the firm has a professor of law who works as a full time knowledge advisor to our practitioners. Where there is a gap in the knowledge of CA's or other practitioners, we make use of his exceptional knowledge and experience to inform and educate through one-on-one training sessions, seminars, workshops or lectures.

In addition we offer an accredited in-house Practical Legal Training course, and hold in-house lectures every week.

Vac programme

Just as much as we are eager to meet you, and have the opportunity to get to know you a little better; you probably have a similar enthusiasm to see how things work at ENSafrica. The ENSafrica Vac programmes allow students to gain exposure at the coalface and to see the types of matters that we do - you’ll witness what drives africENS to excel and see a little bit of what we call “home”.

What does your Vac programme entail?

We run South African programmes in our Johannesburg and Cape Town offices. Our Vac programmes aren’t just shadowing exercises - rather, they are fully structured to give you an introduction to the firm and the business of law. You’ll get to attend lectures, go on court visits and work with attorneys - and hey, there’s also some fun in between as you “suss” out whether this is the place for you!

If you want to attend, remember to let us know because we have a limited number of spots and we get lots of applications.

trainees | how do I apply?

Tell us a little about yourself – we know you're busy but the more information you can give us about where you're at, what you would like to do and what you're really passionate about, the more easily we'll be able to determine if we have the right position for you at ENSafrica. When sending your details through be sure to send us at very least the following important documents:

• a winning letter of motivation as to why you'd like to join ENSafrica
• your comprehensive CV showing your experience to date
• all your academic transcripts
• a certified copy of your ID document or equivalent
• at least two contactable references

You can email us at info@ENSafrica.com or use the form below to submit your documents.

Scholarships

In an ongoing effort to give back to the Africa we love, we support talented students that have a passion for law. ENSafrica has committed to providing scholarships to students at various universities.

more info/additional

• background
• how large is the firm?
• pro bono

background

As one of Africa's oldest, largest and most respected law firms, we are devoted to providing top-quality legal, tax and forensics services to our clients, offering innovative and creative solutions tailored specifically to individual client needs and wants. We maintain our reputation by constantly re-inventing ourselves and challenging employees to create inspired solutions which mirror the changing political, social, economic and environmental landscape.

We firmly believe in our ability to initiate positive change and transformation, both within the firm and within the profession itself. Now over 1100 strong, the firm operates out of twelve major African cities, namely Accra, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kigali, Port Louis, Stellenbosch, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Windhoek as 'one-firm' despite the many departments, teams and individuals that contribute to our success.

And it is our vision to continue to be "one team" irrespective of our disparate locations, our size or the logistical divisions and operational necessities that at times may make this difficult - indeed, we believe it is our ability to capitalise on our differences and work as a synergistic team that is one of our greatest strengths.

The firm however, never underestimates the importance of our people on whom our success is completely reliant.

how large is the firm?

ENSafrica is Africa’s largest law firm with over 600 practitioners and was established over 100 years ago. The firm has a significant breadth and depth of experience and specialist expertise that spans all commercial areas of law, tax, forensics and IP and benchmarks itself according to international standards whilst retaining a uniquely African focus.

This sounds very clichéd - so perhaps we should rather say, in essence, what really differentiates us is the breadth and depth of the services we offer clients - we do not have small departments made up of one or two practitioners specialising in certain areas of law, or even, large departments with everyone doing a bit of everything.

Rather, we have a wide range of departments each of which is focused on a different aspect of the law and divided into a number of specialist teams - in turn, each team comprises a number of experts working within a niche area of that type of law and business. This means that the quantity and quality of the work we do is exciting and most often, ground breaking, as we have both the skills and resources to be creative and develop our expertise to remain cutting edge.

It is by knowing the in's-and-out's of the law at this level and being able to have specialists within each field of business dealing with all the aspects that relate to the matter, that we can make a difference and add value when advising our clients.

Pro bono

ENSafrica operates in South Africa out of its Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Stellenbosch offices, and is particularly proud of its pro bono offices in the impoverished areas of Alexandra, Johannes-burg and Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. These offices - the first of their kind in South Africa - provide access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay, by offering free quality legal services on their doorstep.

To view our pro bono page please click here

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