Welcome to the homepage of a new institutional, educational and professional-development home and one with a difference: The Law and Governance Academy of Southern Africa (LAGASA).
LAGASA is the first-of-its-kind, specialist ‘Bridging Academy of Excellence and Professionalism’.
LAGASA’s core objective is capacity-, excellence- and professionalism-building – within and across industries, sectors and their respective disciplines – through a synergistic ‘bridging’ intervention like no other.
This ‘intervention’ is one that complements – rather than duplicates – existing teaching, training and/or professional development offerings, enabling stakeholder participants better to transition from the likes of the lecture-hall to the boardroom; from the world of theory, to that of practice; and so on.
Recognising that a strong legal and public sector are core bulwarks against the erosion of the rule of law and human-rights realisation, LAGASA’s bespoke Programme interventions begin with these sectors. However, as our Stakeholder Programme Offering Page reveals, there is much more to LAGASA, and thus much more to be gained by various stakeholders.
What does LAGASA mean? Aside from being an acronym for this Bridging ‘Law and Governance Academy’ of Excellence – born in Southern Africa, but with global relevance – the choice of name was in part based on its etymology, which represents ‘versatility, enthusiasm, agility and unconventional methods’. This meaning speaks directly to LAGASA’s purpose as a pioneering, public-interest response to certain contemporary challenges that remain inadequately addressed.
More on the nature of these challenges and how, and why, LAGASA is part of ‘their fix’ below.
First, why was LAGASA founded and who is behind it?
LAGASA was founded, and is directed, by Advocate Lauren Kohn.
Kohn is a South-African-born, multi-award-winning legal scholar, educationalist, legal practitioner, trailblazing social-entrepreneur, solutionist thinker and motivational speaker.
Kohn’s legal scholarship, practical experience and various paradigm-shaking endeavours have been regionally and internationally recognised for their originality, excellence and practical impact on socio-legal, political and pedagogical reform.
For over 12 years, Kohn lectured in various fields of law in several core courses and at all levels of the LLB and LLM curricula, at of one of Africa’s leading universities. She also served as external examiner for several law courses at other South African universities. With this wealth of (comparative) institutional and pedagogical knowledge, in 2024 Kohn was struck by the adverse impacts of a fast-changing academic environment; impacts not only on the scholarly and teaching-and-learning projects, but on the graduates and their respective recruiting institutions too.
In particular, on returning from her period of unpaid, university-research leave – during which she was able to dedicate herself to her significant PhD Project (on the ‘Rise of South Africa’s Integrity & Accountability Fourth Branch of State and its Role in Corruption Prevention and Redress’) with the generous support of a prestigious Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Scholarship – Kohn arrived back in lecture hall and, seeing things through a clear lens, saw the academic project unfolding in a way that concerned her deeply.
Kohn became increasingly disconcerted by declining pedagogical standards, ‘silo-ed teaching, learning and assessment’ – which does not serve the higher academic calling – and increased scholarly and/or student apathy given this environment with its extraneous pressures and constraints. Kohn noted how these pressures are playing out across the board, irrespective of the type of university (public or private), college and/or other training offering.
She also became palpably aware of a decline in the kind of genuine, educationalist passion for, and commitment to, truly impactful teaching and learning. This decline is worrying for it is this kind of passionate knowledge-dissemination and assessment, underpinned by a real commitment to academic freedom and scholarly excellence, that best equips graduates for effective real-world practice irrespective of their chosen fields of study.
Kohn thus identified the nub of a major systemic problem, and being the solutionist-thinker that she is, developed an elegant and effective solution. That is to say: a solution which does not replace the likes of such existing educational offerings but rather synergises with, and supplements, them in a symbiotic manner – A solution that serves to bridge the gap(s).
And so, LAGASA was born!
LAGASA is the ‘solution of the moment’ to some of the most pressing ‘problems of the moment’
In short, and in the words of Mandela, LAGASA is about ‘building’: building bridges, building capacity, building excellence and building resilience.
And it is about doing so in an effective, innovative and expeditious way. This ‘LAGASA way’, or methodology, is being spearheaded by Lauren Kohn, who is expertly equipped to lead, drive and implement this paradigm-shaking intervention.
Hard and soft skills aside, this anecdotal story from one of her former students is worth sharing with you, our potential stakeholders and donors.
This former student noted that she ‘found it striking’ that unlike Kohn’s ‘fellow academics’, Kohn’s ‘office door was labelled not with a littering of letters before and/or after her name but rather, simply displayed her name, ‘Lauren Kohn’, and this quote by late President Nelson Mandela.
This anecdote sums up what Kohn, and thus LAGASA, stands for.
Kohn will thus lead and drive the attainment of LAGASA’s mandate with her unique brand, and mix, of:
(And apparently if you are a former student of hers, you know what this means.)
Aside from Kohn’s extensive scholarly and educationalist experience, before joining the Academy she practiced law for several years at one of South Africa’s ‘golden circle’ law firms, gaining extensive experience in various legal fields and practice management.
During her academic tenure, and when capacity allowed – while she juggled teaching approximately 4 law courses in an average academic year and being a mom to 4 children – Kohn did not let her love of legal practice dissipate. She continued to provide top-notch, expert legal consultancy advice, legislative drafting, strategic and policy advisory work for NGO, public- and private-sector clients. Much of Kohn’s advisory work fed into her award-winning academic scholarship and enriched her teaching for her students; ever hungry for real-world, legal insights.
Kohn is now an admitted Advocate of the High Court of South Africa (Practising Roll). She also remains a regular media commentator on matters of public importance, and is a highly-regarded local and international legal expert who has presented her research in various countries; contributed to numerous colloquia and symposia; and even given motivational seminars for the likes of the ‘women in law’, our future leaders, and so on.
Kohn’s doctoral publications – and her extensive dissemination of her advancement of knowledge in this relatively nascent and complex field of study and practice – make her the leading South African expert on this fast-evolving subject.
Now, at 43 years of age, and with her combination of business, practical legal, educational and scholarly experience and insight, Lauren Kohn has launched LAGASA and through it, is ready to make a real state-societal difference…to ‘be the change’ that South Africa and the world needs.
