EMPLOYMENT TYPE: 6 month contract (renewable)
An exciting Internship opportunity is available for South-African as well as Foreign law students who have completed their legal education in English, French, or Portuguese to join the South African offices of ENS in Johannesburg or Cape Town.
ENS is a leading firm at the forefront of legal, tax, forensics, and intellectual property services across Africa. With offices in Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa, and a team of over 600 practitioners specialising in all areas of commercial law, we offer the depth of expertise and capacity required to meet our clients business needs, helping them navigate complex regulatory environments across the continent.
Trusted by clients to manage their most sensitive and high-stakes matters with speed, efficiency, and excellence, ENS has earned recognition from several prestigious international ranking agencies. Our years of on-the-ground experience have given us a deep understanding of Africas diverse cultural, commercial, and geopolitical contexts. Weve also built long-standing partnerships with trusted local firms across the continent, strengthening our ability to deliver seamless, cross-border support.
Our practitioners are qualified to practise the law of every country in which we operate. We also offer a robust international English law practice, along with a dedicated French law team led by French-qualified lawyers with significant transactional expertise in Francophone jurisdictions. Our capabilities are further enhanced by specialists qualified in OHADA law, enabling us to support clients doing business across West and Central Africa.
Additionally, our Portuguese-speaking lawyers assist clients operating in Lusophone Africa, particularly Angola and Mozambique. We also house a dedicated China department, staffed by Mandarin and Cantonese speaking practitioners who focus on Chinese investment and expansion strategies in Africa and African business interests in China.
As part of our Internship Programme, we offer you:
- A comprehensive induction, including technical, social and interpersonal skills
- Continuous development through exposure to high quality matters and group training
- A fully resourced legal library (our Infohub)
- A mentor to help you to transition from university to the world of work
- Employee wellness
- Legal research (collecting and gathering legal sources of information)
- Legal research in comparative law research centres and academic institutions of South-Africa
- Analysing probable outcomes based on legal precedents
- Attending independently to high level research
- Maintaining an up-to-date comprehensive knowledge of developments in the relevant areas of law and disseminate that information
- Drafting country profiles, research notes, synoptic tables, PowerPoint or excel presentations
- Assisting executives / partners with preparation of training and/or other presentations
- Assisting executives with the drafting of brochures, tenders, proposals, bids)
- Legal translations from English to French and from French to English
- Legal translations from English to Portuguese and from Portuguese to English
- Completed a bachelors degree (LLB) or a masters degree (LLM) in law or equivalent degree from a reputable law school established in one of the following jurisdictions:
- an Anglophone jurisdiction (South-Africa, Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Malta, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand),
- a Francophone jurisdiction (Canada, Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Lebanon), or
- a Lusophone jurisdiction (Portugal, Brazil, Macau, Angola or Mozambique).
- Academic training completed with another degree in accounting, tax, economics, business administration, commerce, political science, international relations or languagesis advantageous.
- Prior legal training in one or several of the following legal specialisms:
- Public international law
- Private international law
- International commercial arbitration
- International law of the sea
- International comparative law
- European comparative law
- African comparative law
- Corporate and commercial law
- Competition law
- Property law
- Land law
- Engineering and construction law
- Banking and financial law
- Mining and petroleum law
- Natural resources law
- Energy law
- International trade and competition law
- IP/IT law
- Environmental law
- Employment law
- International taxation
- Corporate taxation
- Resource taxation
- Forensics
- Fluency in at least two of the following languages : English, French, Portuguese
- A prior knowledge or interest for international and comparative business law and Africa
- Strong analytical skills
- The ability to self-regulate
- The ability to work as a member of a team
- Ability to handle high volumes of research as well as meet deadlines with the view to adding value to the business by delivering the required results
- Ability to assist with knowledge transfer to professionals and take advantage of team interactions
- Ability to produce consistent high quality legal research
- Display honesty and integrity at all times
Immigration requirements and visas : foreign students are required to apply and obtain a temporary internship visa or student visa from the South African Embassy located in their country of residence prior to the commencement of the internship.
ENS is committed to transformation and achieving equity in its workplaces. Preference will therefore be given to suitably qualified and skilled candidates in accordance with the Employment Equity Act of South Africa.
Disclaimer: Please note that this internship programme is currently in the planning stage and may not proceed as described. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, suspend, or withdraw the programme at any time without prior notice. Submission of an application does not guarantee selection or placement on the programme.
