Competency-based exam success story: Thersia Du Toit-Smit
About Thersia
Thersia Du Toit-Smit is a Senior State Advocate in the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit (DPP: WC) of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA).
Thersia Du Toit-Smit is a Senior State Advocate in the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit (DPP: WC) of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA).
Becoming an academic in the legal field has various benefits. One of the main benefits is the opportunity to impart practical know-how on aspiring legal practitioners.
Johan van Stade spoke to #Rooted&Relevant legal podcaster Macdonald Sesinyi about his personal experience transitioning from legal practice to academics at a private training institute.
Watch the episode:
Suzette Snyder is currently an attorney at Du Plessis & Van der Westhuizen Inc. She obtained the highest mark in the North West for Paper 2 during the second sitting this year.
"In 2009, I matriculated from High School Rustenburg. I started my LLB degree with Unisa in July 2017 and finished in December 2021."
When you practise on your own, you are the brand. There’s no marketing department, no big-firm logo to lean on, and no room for fuzzy positioning. Everything a prospective client sees, from your matter-of-fact email, your WhatsApp response time, your LinkedIn headline, your costs letter, even your invoice layout, says something about what it’s like to work with you. This article unpacks what a sole practitioner is in the South African context, what a one-lawyer brand really entails, the parts of your brand that matter most, and practical tactics to manage (and protect) your reputation wh
"I recently obtained my LLB degree at the University of South Africa and am currently seeking articles of clerkship."
"I am currently employed as an Emergency Care Technician/Paramedic at Frontier Medix, where I serve as an Operational Medic. My responsibilities include attending to house-to-house emergency calls and providing medical support at various events, often requiring 4x4 response capabilities in remote environments."
There has been an increasing and concerning tendency where Testators/Testatrixes decide to either draft a will themselves, use templates available on the internet, use the will of another individual as a guideline, or purchase a fillable will template for as little as R80.00. This might be due to various reasons, but the consequences for your loved ones can be far-reaching after your passing.
"I’m currently a Candidate Attorney at Barnard Incorporated Attorneys. I grew up and matriculated in Stellenbosch, and began my tertiary studies with a BCom Law degree at Stellenbosch University in 2018.
I then completed my postgraduate LLB between 2021 and 2022, concluding the final six months of the degree on an academic exchange at KU Leuven in Belgium."
On 1 October 2025, we hosted our GLR PVT School Award Ceremony to celebrate the success of aspiring legal practitioners who excelled in the 400-hour practical vocational training programme from May to August 2025.
The top 12 students achieved excellent marks and walked away with Gawie le Roux vouchers.
Here are some of the top achievers.
"From the halls of music to the online lectures of GLR, I – like Alice – followed the white rabbit into the wonderland of law. What began as curiosity became conviction.
"I have been in the human resources field for most of my 32 years of work experience, and for the last 18 years, I have been in a senior HRM position. Currently, I work in the healthcare environment, but I have also spent close to a decade in the steel manufacturing industry."
The template pack includes: