We assist in-house legal teams and corporates in South Africa with flexible legal support, secondments, retainers and legal projects.
Caveat Legal’s corporate lawyers in South Africa support in-house legal teams and large corporate entities with flexible legal capacity, secondments, legal operations support, compliance projects and commercial legal advice. Our lawyers understand the pressure on legal teams to manage increasing complexity, respond quickly to business needs and deliver quality legal work within tighter budgets.
Giving legal advice is not only about knowing the law but also knowing your client, so that you know how to best apply the law to the clients needs and specific objectives.
- Stormme Hobson, Caveat Panel Member
Clients
Our corporate lawyers are available to assist corporates and in-house legal teams with:
- Quality secondments from seasoned corporate lawyers who can “hit the ground running” and support on specific projects, workflow backlogs, maternity leave cover or periods where the company is trying to fill a vacancy
- Intelligent design and staffing of in-house legal functions
- Tech system design and rollout advice and assistance
- Training for staff on compliance with existing procedures and provision of easy-to-use infographics
- Missing link policy and procedure design and build, staff training on its compliant implementation (for example procurement, contract management, contract approvals, and customer and supplier onboarding policies and procedures)
- Contract template suites, including for intra-company/group and cross-border relationships
- Assistance with corporate governance and legal/regulatory compliance
Employment:
Occupational Health and Safety (managerial level).
Harassment at the workplace (aimed at all levels of staff).
COVID19 at the workplace (managerial level).
Disciplinary hearings – how to run fairly and write an outcome (aimed at managers who might have to chair hearings).
Cultural Diversity in the workplace.
CCMA training: how to prepare for conciliation and arbitration (aimed at managers who represent their employer at the CCMA).
Shop stewards – capacitate them and improve their skills in dealing with matters at the workplace (aimed at shop stewards)
Commercial:
Corporate governance requirements in terms of the Companies Act and Regulations and King Code
Commercial policies and procedures (for example procurement, contract management, contract approvals, and customer and supplier onboarding policies and procedures).
Contract law and principles – for business, procurement and sales functions
Data Protection:
POPIA and GDPR
Policies, processes, manuals and their implementation
Data breaches and how to handle them
Cybercrimes Act
Electronic Communication and Transactions Act (‘ECTA”)
Guidance on data protection within certain other African jurisdictions
Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABAC)
Financial Services:
Collective investment schemes and Hedge Funds under CISCA
FAIS (though this may soon be replaced by COFI)
FICA
Twin Peaks regulatory model and COFI
National Credit Act
Consumer Protection Act
What I enjoy most about servicing in-house teams is being able to marry legal with business in a way that enables business to thrive responsibly. Law and legal support is often regarded as something to be relied on reactively and begrudgingly as a cost-centre. Companies can gain so much from shifting that mindset towards relying on their in-house legal teams to proactively support and enhance their business operations in a way that adds immense value.
- SHAYLYN MCDONALD, Caveat Panel Member
We assist Corporates with legal services in many different industries
Industries our clients work in include:
- telecomms
- manufacturing
- pharmaceuticals
- financial services
- retail
- technology
- advertising
- tobacco products
- mining
- agriculture
FAQs
Yes, Caveat provides experienced corporate lawyers to assist with short-term vacancies like maternity leave or long leave, either remotely or in-house, and either full-time or part-time, depending on your needs.
Yes, we provide lawyers on secondment at a fixed monthly price. We also assist with ad hoc briefs or projects at fixed fees.
Caveat has stripped away the costs that drive legal fees up in traditional firms (large offices, teams of support staff etc) to ensure that clients pay less for their legal work. As such, our rates are around half of the cost of the same lawyers at the large firms.
Corporate law is the body of law governing how companies are formed, owned, managed, and dissolved. In South Africa, it usually refers to large or multinational enterprises. Corporate Law is the legal framework a business operates inside, rather than the individual contracts a business signs.
Corporate law is about the company as a legal entity – its structure, ownership, and governance. Commercial law is about what that company does – the contracts, transactions, and trading relationships it enters into. A business will usually need both, often on the same matter: a sale of shares (corporate) will typically require reviewing every material contract the company holds (commercial).
Corporate law spans company formation and structuring, shareholder and subscription agreements, directors’ duties and governance, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and business rescue, and regulatory compliance under the Companies Act. Related fields – like tax, competition, and financial services law – often sit alongside corporate work on the same transaction, which is why Caveat briefs specialists together rather than generalists in isolation.
In-house counsel is well placed for the recurring, operational legal needs of a business. External corporate lawyers are typically brought in for higher-stakes or specialist matters – a fundraise, an acquisition, a restructuring, or a matter that needs deep, current expertise your internal team doesn’t carry day to day. Caveat’s model is built for exactly this: an ad hoc brief for a single matter, or a secondment for a defined period, without the overhead of a large firm.
Fee structures vary by firm and by matter – hourly rates, fixed fees, retainers, or a blend. At Caveat, our lawyers work virtually and without the overhead of a traditional large firm, so fees are aligned with the value of the work rather than inflated by fixed cost structures. We’re upfront about credentials and fees before any engagement begins – no surprises, no open-ended billing.
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