Lauren Kohn is an Admitted Advocate of the High Court of South Africa (\u2018SA\u2019) (Practicing Roll) and a well-recognised Legal Scholar \u2013 both nationally and globally. For around 12 years, since the completion of her LLM at UCT Law, Lauren served as a dedicated member of UCT\u2019s Public Law Department where she lectured, and\/or convened, among others: administrative, constitutional, open governance and environmental law. Aside from her genuine love of teaching, Lauren has proven to be an exceptional (socio-)legal scholar. In 2021, she received the high honour of being inducted into UCT\u2019s College of Young Fellows and is the only Inductee in UCT\u2019s history to have been so recognised with a PhD still underway. Much of Lauren\u2019s scholarship has been judicially endorsed and fed into law reform in SA. During her tenure at UCT Law, Lauren won a record-breaking five (5) Law Faculty Research Prizes for producing \u2018the most outstanding\u2019 \u2013 typically \u2018ground-breaking\u2019 – legal scholarship. She has presented her research at numerous conferences, both locally and abroad, as an invited scholar and, on several occasions, as Keynote Speaker. In 2016, Lauren was recognised as a Dean\u2019s Nominee for the \u2018Distinguished
Teacher\u2019s Award\u2019, with her students in various courses, consistently praising Lauren for her exceptional teaching abilities and genuine passion and effectiveness as an inspiring educationalist, mentor, and thought leader.
Lauren\u2019s PhD Project, on \u2018the Rise and Role of SA\u2019s Integrity & Accountability Fourth Branch of State\u2019 has made her the leading South African expert on this complex and evolving subject, with its implications for corruption and related law-reform endeavours. Several of Lauren\u2019s original theorisations and proposals have already been adopted and\/or engaged with by various state actors in a multitude of state-capture redress and prevention efforts. In 2013, Lauren co-founded SA\u2019s first online, access-to-justice platform, www.SALegalAdvice.co.za in order
to enhance access to quality, expert legal services, and thus, justice for all. During the hard COVID-19 Lockdown (2020), Lauren provided all manner of legal advice on this forum and typically pro bono. Prior to joining the Academy and completing her LLM in 2013, Lauren loved her time in formal legal practice as an Attorney, where she worked for several years from 2008, at Webber Wentzel (in Alliance with Linklaters). During this time, Lauren played a pivotal role in the likes of expert, legal opinion drafting; judicial reviews; commercial litigation strategic advice; tax-related opinions (including on transfer pricing and the thin capitalisation rule); as well as contract drafting, including for the Bus Rapid Transit System contractual roll-out for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Even during her time in Academia, Lauren continued to synergise her love of \u2018the law as it works in practice\u2019 with her pursuit, and advancement of, legal knowledge. Much of Lauren\u2019s consultancy advisory work fed into her most impactful legal scholarship. Lauren has advised both public and private sector actors on a wide array of legal and commercial issues; including expert work on tender-related disputes, legislative drafting and numerous legal opinions. As from February 2025, Lauren has taken on the role of Director, at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (\u2018GI\u2019). She is spearheading its new institutional Initiative: LAGASA (the Law and Governance Academy of Southern Africa), which will serve as a specialist \u2018bridging\u2019 academy of excellence for multiple stakeholders in building individual, and institutional, capacity to strengthen the rule of law in SA and beyond. Lauren is married to her partner of over 20 years, Andrew, and together they have four children. She is passionately committed to finding effective solutions to seemingly intractable, state-societal problems; enhancing the rule of law and constitutionalism; and teaching, inspiring, and mentoring the next generation of lawyers, leaders, civil servants, activists, businesspersons and \u2018socialpreneurs\u2019.<\/p>
<\/p>
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Founder & Director, Law and Governance Academy of Southern Africa\u00a0(\u201cLAGASA\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speakers"],"yoast_head":"\n