An overview
Leslie Downie is uniquely skilled to help organisations manage legal risks triggered by recording inaccurate information in databases. Her theoretical expertise is drawn from postgraduate legal and language qualifications, MPhil research in an Engineering and Built Environment Faculty, as well as practising as an attorney, notary, conveyancer, mediator and legal consultant. Her specialisations include verification and authentication processes for land information systems, fine art and collectables, and data from poor or low-literate citizens. Leslie also offers mediation services for alternative dispute resolution relating to land, housing, art, collectables and religious entities.
Stellenbosch University: Centre of International and Comparative Labour and Social Security Law, 2000
University of South Africa: Hons in English Literature, 1991
University of Pretoria: BA LLB, 1981
- Notarial verification and authentication processes
- Land information systems (LIS), particularly housing related, including mainstream commercial properties, religious and social tenure and informal land tenure
- Researcher, author, speaker and publisher
- Background as a fine art gallerist
- Mediation and alternative dispute resolution
- Background in the workings of religious institutions
- Simple language and audio material for functionally illiterate listeners
- Training of paralegals and record keepers
- Research: MPhil (Geomatics Division, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment) awarded with distinction, 2015. Title Developing and Initial Testing of Pro-Poor Prenuptial Agreements as a New Land Tenure Tool to Secure Rights in Urban State-Subsidized Housing –
- Mediation panels: Mediation in Motion (Current) | DRDLR Land Rights Management Facility (Previous)
- Publications:
Pro-Poor Legal Practice: Household Rights and State Subsidised Housing in South Africa, Juta 2016 Review by Sicelo Kula
Annual Banking Law Update: How to Rob a Bank: Land Tenure Information Systems, 2016 Ed C Hugo Juta
FIG Working Week (New Zealand), 2016 – Cadastre and Land Management Commission: Social Tenure Based on Intimacy – Avoiding Family Disasters: South African Marital Contracts as an Innovative Pro-poor Land Tool This article has been nominated ‘article of the month’ in July 2016 by FIG the International Federation of Surveyors
AfricaGEO Conference – Land Tenure: Mapping Marital Rights and Obligations, 2014
English/Xhosa audio books: How to Buy and Sell a Low Cost Property BLISS 2012
PER Law Journal: Urban Pro Poor Registrations: Complex-Simple, the Overstrand Project, 2011 - Addresses: | Hometruths Conference London Clergy Land Tenure: Mapping Marital Rights 2018 / SA Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC), WITS, NWU, UNISA Pro-Poor Legal Practice 2017/ SA Geomatics Institute AGM 2017 / VPUU Individual Social Tenure 2015 /UCT Property Law Teacher’s Colloquium: Sur-Real Rights: Urban Immovable Property Law for the Informal Sector, 2012 | Premier of the Western Cape and Provisional officials: Conflicts in Urban Poor-to-Poor Alienations of Previously State-subsidized Land, 2012 | Stellenbosch University Sustainability Institute: Sustainable Publishing, 2008
Leslie loves reading, collaborative writing, conceptual art, social hiking and distance swimming, and has written a collaborative murder mystery, Dead Letter, with friends. Volunteer activities include: Christian Lawyer’s Association board member 2007 – 2008 | Learn to Earn board chairperson Hermanus (NPO) 2001 – 2003 | Harare Inner City Partnership social welfare committee 1997 – 1998 | American Field Service (AFS) exchange student Dallas, Texas
2016 – Present: Senior Associate at Michalsons
Leslie undertakes various legal activities, including:
- Land information systems and informal land tenure data
- Mediation of disputes over land and housing, including commercial properties, low income housing and land owned by religious and charitable entities
- Notarial verification processes for records for fine art, celebrity memorabilia and collectables
- Mediation of disputes between artists, dealers, investors and insurers, including disputes over attribution, consignments, deliveries and breakages
- Protection of Personal Information (POPI) interface between hard copy and manual processes
- Training record keepers and paralegals
- Land tenure research
- Data protection for disadvantaged or disempowered consumers
- Notarial verification and authentication services, including apostilles for foreign jurisdictions
- Data systems for protection of staff and dependents within religious institutions
- Mediation of disputes between staff members, parishioners and religious institutions
Lectureships: UNISA (social and family law), UCT (business law)
Law firms: Burgers & Van Noordwyk, Downie Gray & Associates (Hermanus) Atherstone & Cook (Harare, Zimbabwe) Livingston, Leandy Inc (Durban)
South African Geomatics Institute (SAGI) affiliate member
Local government consulting: Overstrand Municipality consulting, Western Cape Provincial Human Settlements reference group
Pilot project associations: Overstrand Municipality, Cape Law Society, Stellenbosch University.
Local government consulting: Overstrand Municipality consulting, Western Cape Provincial Human Settlements reference group
Research: Land information systems, social tenure, urban land rights, pro-poor generic contracts, backlog title deeds
Directorship: Imibala Fine Art Gallery, (NPO associated with the Imibala Trust)
BLISS: Business Law Informal Sector Solutions: Trademark holder and audio publisher
Mediation panelist
Leslie Downie Consultancy: 2007 to date