This site is written by Greg Fourie SC, an advocate at the Johannesburg Bar for about 25 years, practising mainly in labour law, commercial litigation and arbitration, and review. Not a programmer. Until early 2026 the technology in chambers was Word, Acrobat and a legal pad.
Since then Claude has been used on real matters, first with more enthusiasm than care and then, after several near misses, with a good deal more care. This site is the result. It is written for other lawyers, from those who have never opened a chatbot to those who already have a folder of skills, and it starts at the beginning and builds up.
What is here
Step-by-step guides that assume nothing and go, in order, from installing the software to a matter folder that the tool works inside, readable documents, skills, plugins, projects, a first real task, research from sources only, and the checking routine, with the confidentiality, fee and supervision rules at the end. A research page listing the judgments and guidance on file, by country, with the proposed guidelines for advocates and an international comparison. A dated news log. And a blog, written in the first person, for what has actually happened in practice.
How it is written
Every statement about a judgment comes from the judgment, which is on file, and the paragraph numbers have been checked against it. Where a page says something about how a product works, that is how it worked on the date on the page; these products change monthly. Made-up examples are called made-up in the text. South African authority is kept apart from foreign guidance, which is persuasive at most. Anything that is a proposal says so.
Claude is used to help write and maintain the site, in the same way it is used for everything else described here: it drafts, the author checks, and anything that reads like a brochure goes back. If a page still reads like one, say so.
What it is not
It is not legal advice, and it is not the view of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates, the General Council of the Bar, the Legal Practice Council or anybody but the author. Your duties, the rules of your court and the terms of the account you use are yours to check. The site says where it looked.
Corrections, disagreements and better ideas: fourie@law.co.za.