Lauren Kohn is a South African legal scholar, practitioner and trailblazer. Her legal expertise spans public and private law, as well as regulatory, corporate governance, an anti-corruption law. Her scholarship in these areas regularly breaks new ground and has been widely endorsed by the courts – including South Africa’s apex Constitutional Court – and academics, locally and abroad). Lauren attained her B.Bus.Sci (Distinction, Law); LLB (Magna Cum Laude, Top Student); and LLM (Magna Cum Laude, Top Student)(UCT), all with several class medals, various special awards and scholarships. She has undertaken her PhD (“The Rise & Recognition of South Africa’s Fourth Branch of State and its Role in Corruption Prevention and Redress”) as a recipient of the prestigious Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Scholarship.
As an academic in the Public Law Department (University of Cape Town, UCT), Lauren has won a record-breaking five (5) Law Faculty Research Prizes within just a few years – the most Law Faculty Research Prizes ever won in the history of the faculty. The anonymous judges have consistently commended her scholarship for its originality, insight, compelling writing, and tangible impact on legal development through judicial citations and law /policy reform. On matters teaching, Lauren has supervised and mentored numerous students, many of whom have gone on to pursue academic careers. For her lecturing (in both the LLB and LLM Programmes), Lauren has obtained consistently excellent (anonymous) student reviews. She is well-known in the ‘student echo chamber’ for being a ‘role-model’ and ‘genuinely passionate educator and mentor’ to her students.
Indeed, Lauren loves imparting her vast knowledge of various legal disciplines with passion and clarity – whether to student or other audiences. In 2016, Lauren received the high honour as a ‘Dean’s Nominee for the UCT Distinguished Teacher’s Award’ – the most prestigious teaching prize at her University – given her uniquely exceptional contribution to the teaching-and-learning project. Lauren is a dedicated educationalist. She synergistically weaves her practical knowledge of the workings of the law into her teaching and research, and the latter inspire her continued legal / policy advisory work. As a mother to four small children of her own, Lauren is committed to early childhood development (ECD) research and has served on a School Board, providing pro pono legal, regulatory and teaching-and-learning advice. Lauren is an editor on the Board of Constitutional Court Review and a founding board member of the Cissie Gool Foundation.
As a believer in the importance of an open, free (and informed) media, Lauren often acts as a public intellectual by providing legal commentary to media outlets and non-profit organisations (NPOs), as well as professional bodies. She has frequently been invited to give expert input on technical governance and rights projects in South Africa (SA). Lauren has been a Keynote speaker and presenter at numerous local and international conferences and colloquia. In 2023 alone, and just five months after giving birth to her fourth child, Lauren was hosted at five European Universities where she presented her game-changing legal scholarship.
Lauren was an inaugural recipient of a ‘Women in Law (WOZA) Award’ (2019), in recognition of her work as one of SA’s top three (3) ‘Academic thought leaders and innovators’. In 2018, Lauren’s students nominated her for SA’s ‘poll of all polls’ and she was honoured to have been listed as one of the country’s ‘Top 200 Young South Africans’ by the famous SA Newspaper, the Mail & Guardian’ (Top 200 Award: ‘Law & Justice’ Category). Lauren is also a winner of the Dutch-led Initiative, #‘Inspiring50’ (S.T.E.M), ‘Most Inspiring50-SAWomen’(2020) in recognition of her innovative approach to legal scholarship and teaching – particularly, her ‘clever pedagogical pivot’ she implemented during the hard lockdown – and her paradigm-changing enhancement of access to justice in SA. She was also selected as one of twenty (20) ‘Influential Women Leaders from across Africa’ to participate in the Programme: ‘Leading in Public Life: Women, Influence, Power’ (2019), hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance.
In 2021, Lauren received the highest Academic Honour at her level at UCT: she was inducted into the College of Young Fellows of the University – a testament to her exceptional contribution to legal scholarship and much of the law reform that has directly ensued from it. Lauren was the only Inductee from the Law Faculty, the only female scholar in the cohort, and – quite remarkably – is the only Young Fellow in the history of the University, to have received this honour with a PhD Project still underway. The Committee(/s) commended the outstanding quality, scope, and (tangible) impact of her research at the level where it really matters – socio-legal reform. Lauren has since joined the ranks of the prestigious, Vice-Chancellor’s ‘UCT Future Leaders Programme’. In mid-September, 2024, Lauren will be attending the International Woman in Law, Justitia Award Ceremony at the Palace of Justice in Vienna – she is one of three (3) shortlisted Laureates from around the world for the Award: ‘Young Female Trailblazer / Change-Maker / Pioneer’.
On 2 August 2024, Lauren was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, having moved from the Roll of Attorneys, to which she was formally admitted in 2010. Lauren has over 15 years’ experience in drafting expert legal opinions, undertaking legislative drafting work, and providing technical legal / policy input for rights and governance matters (typically pro bono). Before transitioning into academia, Lauren enjoyed the formal practice of the law at Webber Wentzel (in alliance with Linklaters) where she practiced for several years. She attained Distinctions for all her Side-Bar Exams and the Top Result from across the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape, for the most challenging of these admission exams; namely, ‘Court Practice’. While at Webber Wentzel, Lauren was involved in, among others, legal opinion work, judicial reviews, legislative and contractual drafting work. She also co-pioneered several training programmes to upskill municipal (and other public-sector) officials in the fields of municipal systems law, procurement law, administrative law and good governance.
In 2013, Lauren co-founded the first-of-its-kind (NPO) South African on-line legal services platform, www.SALegalAdvice.co.za, to enhance access to justice. She will often spend late nights ‘answering legal questions’ online to help those in need, at affordable rates / pro deo. Her genuine efforts to enhance access to justice in SA have led to her recognition as a ‘legal pioneer who, early on, embraced “new working methods” where “business as usual” has failed and innovative “out-of-the-box” solutions have succeeded.’ During the 2020 Covid 19 ‘hard lockdown’, this online platform proved an invaluable source of pro bono legal advice for those in need. This was particularly so for women and children in abusive domestic environments, people facing unfair labour practices, small businesses, and parents of ECD learners struggling to educate their children in the lockdown context. Lauren is passionately committed to excellent and innovative legal education, research and scholarship, and to deepening the rule of law and constitutionalism in SA and beyond. Lauren hopes to spearhead the development of a (NPO) ‘Academy of Excellence and Ethics’ to enhance good public- and private-sector governance and help combat corruption proactively, by deepening a culture of integrity, accountability and building greater capacity for ‘building brilliance’ across sectors and disciplines.
EDUCATION – SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS OBTAINED PRIOR TO PhD (Leiden)
2012: MASTERS’ OF LAWS (LLM: Special Programme: Administrative & Constitutional Law), UCT
• LLM Degree awarded with Distinction and an 80% aggregate, Top overall result out of 103 LLM graduates.
• Prizes & scholarships awarded include, amongst others:
o The David & Elaine Potter Fellowship for academic excellence and dedication to uplifting civil society.
o The DAAD-NRF Scholarship for ‘Academic Excellence and for having the potential to have a “multiplicator effect” in society’. Lauren was the only law student to have been recognised out of approximately 150 scholarship holders from across the country (most of whom are drawn from the Sciences).
o The Law Endowment Scholarship, ‘Towards Sustainable Justice’.
• Distinctions & Top result for all courss:
o Governance Under the Constitution (81%).
o Administrative Justice (81%).
o Principles of Environmental Law (75%).
o Advanced Contract Law (85%).
o Dissertation: ‘The Burgeoning Constitutional Requirement of Rationality and the Separation of Powers: Has Rationality Review Gone too Far?’, awarded 80% – highest mark awarded across the board for that year’s LLM student cohort.
2005-2006: BACHELOR OF LAWS (LLB), UCT
• LLB Degree awarded MAGNA CUM LAUDE; Top Student.
• Prizes & scholarships awarded include, amongst others:
o LexisNexis Butterworths Prize, for ‘Best Intermediate Level student’ (1st in class overall).
o John Kotze Medal, for ‘best overall performance in Private Law & Roman Law’.
o Tom W Price Memorial Prize, for obtaining the highest overall marks in the Preliminary and Intermediate Level examinations in Private Law.
o Bar Council Moot Prize.
o Ben Beinart Memorial Prize.
o Numerous Class Medals for attaining ‘Top’ result in several Core Law Subjects.
2001-2004: BACHELOR OF BUSINESS SCIENCE (B.Bus.Sci), UCT
• B.Bus.Sci (in the special field of Law, and an additional focus on Economics).
• Degree awarded in the Special Field of Law, with Honours and with Distinction in Law.
• Prizes, scholarships & other noteworthy academic achievements include, amongst others:
o Class Medals, including for 3rd-year level, Public Sector Economics (ECO323S) (88%).
o Came in the Top 5 (out of ±450 students) for Advanced Macro and Micro Economics (ECO320F) (84%).
o Attained the Top result (out of ±450 students) for the significant 3rd Year Research Essay for ‘Advanced Macro and Micro Economics’ (ECO320F) (with 89%).
o UCT Entrance Merit Scholarships: 2001, 2002, 2003.
o Certificate for Outstanding Academic Achievement: Fuller Hall Residence, Academic Awards Dinner, 2002.
o Inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society.
2000: MATRICULATED WITH SOUTH AFRICAN SENIOR CERTIFICATE, SA
• Matriculated with 7 Subject Distinctions / ‘A’s (subjects all ‘Higher Grade’), received numerous special awards and achieved ‘A’ Aggregate.
• One of only 14 scholars in the Western Cape Province, SA, to matriculate with 7 subject distinctions in the year 2000 and attained the highest number of subject Distinctions at Herschel Girls’ School.
• Received various special awards, honours and scholarships.
• School Prefect; Head of House; International Exchange Student; Head of School Interact Project ’99.