Become a fearless ‘jargonslayer’ with our iLEXplain: Plain legal language workshops. Do your customers understand your documents? Simple language in many contracts and legal documents has become a consumer right and a competitive advantage. Poor legal drafting has become a liability. Create clear legal documents and close the gap between your business and your clients.

We offer workshops, seminars and executive briefings on plain language. Our current focus for intensive workshops is plain language in financial services, insurance, and healthcare related documents.

  • Understand how plain language law and practice affects and can benefit your organisation.
  • Identify unnecessarily complex language in a legal and business context.
  • Learn practical techniques for drafting or editing legal documents in plain language.
  • Plan successful plain language projects in your organisation.
  • Reap the dividends of converting your organisation to plain language.

We have not yet set dates for our next public workshops.

If you’d like to attend a public workshop on this topic but we have not yet set dates (or the location or dates don’t suit you), send us an email asking us to set a date in your city. One delegate costs R4,750 ex VAT. Two or more delegates qualify for a 10% discount. We will serve lunch and refreshments. We limit delegate numbers, so bookings are done on a first come, first served basis. We aim to give practical insights that you can use to be effective. We do not give law lectures! We will refund you if you do not think you received value.

We also offer tailored private events that can be held at your premises on a day that suits you.

A typical workshop includes most of the following, and can be adapted to your needs:

  • What is plain language and why is it important?
  • An overview of the laws that define and deal with plain language.
  • What are the benefits of using plain language?
  • What are the risks of using plain language instead of legalese?
  • An outline of some of the most important plain language principles.
  • Some effective techniques and tricks for writing in plain legal language.
  • Related principles such as document structure, design and typography.
  • Examples of how to write common legal words, phrases and clauses in plain language.
  • Successful plain language projects and the role of style guides and glossaries.
  • Things you can do in your organisation immediately and other action items.
  • Practical plain language writing exercises.
  • Questions and discussion.

We will give you copies of the presentation, useful checklists and further reading lists.

  • Managers – to manage the legal documents that relate to their products or business.
  • Marketing managers – to market legally and effectively using plain language principles.
  • Communications and PR professionals – to learn techniques for more effective communication.
  • Lawyers, in-house legal advisers and paralegals – to draft good documents and provide good advice.
  • Auditors and assurance providers (internal and external) – to provide plain language assurance.
  • Risk managers – to manage risks regarding complicated or unlawful language.
  • Compliance officers – to effectively comply with plain language laws.

  • We have significant practical experience dealing with these specific areas.
  • Our sessions are interactive – you are able to ask questions, have your specific issues dealt with, and influence what gets discussed.
  • Our sessions are tailored to the attendees – we ask you questions in advance so that we know what your issues are and your existing level of knowledge.
  • You are able to network with other people at the event.
  • We do not give sales pitches, which is unfortunately so often what speakers do at conferences.
  • We provide insight and simplify the issues, which can only be done after practically applying POPI to real business issues.
  • We empower you and do not try to entrench ourselves in your organisation.
  • The topic gets covered more comprehensively when one person leads the discussion for a day, rather than many different people covering the same ground. It is not different people covering the same issues superficially in different ways.
  • We cover the same ground in one day, rather than two. This saves you time and money. We tell you what you need to know, not everything.

A practical attorney from Michalsons. We will ensure the attorney is the best person to present the course depending on the type of course, the date, the specific issues and the attendees. For example, Andrew Weeks often presents on this topic. He is a practical and internationally experienced commercial attorney, with specific expertise in plain legal language and consumer protection law. He is a fanatical plain language lawyer who drafts, edits and audits a wide range of agreements and other legal documents using plain language principles. He enjoys educating clients and colleagues about plain language.

We provide this course in different formats. Public and private sessions can last for anything from 45 minutes, half a day or a full day. We also provide eCourses that can be done via the Internet at your convenience. We welcome enquires for more information and details.

Our public events are at various venues around the world. We choose venues that are central and easy to get to, that have adequate parking, good food, and that ensure you are comfortable. We are also happy to give the iLEXplain: Plain legal language workshop or executive briefing at your venue.

Book to attend a Workshop

Feedback from the delegates about the iLEXplain: Plain legal language workshop

‘We had some great feedback from the teams’.

SI, financial services company, Johannesburg

‘I just wanted to say a quick thank you from my side for your recent training sessions…. We’ve received very positive feedback yet again’.

AV, financial services company, Cape Town.

‘This is the best course ever! Where were you two weeks ago when we spent a whole day drafting a letter to our clients?’

Attendee at plain language workshop, Johannesburg.

‘Everyone here really enjoyed the workshop‘

MJ, senior legal editor, Durban

Many thanks for the copy of the workshop presentation, Andrew! Much appreciated. And thanks too for the well-presented session. Beautifully clear.

MH, financial services company, Cape Town

Thanks for the seminar. Our Group Legal Counsel will be contacting you regarding giving a seminar to our global legal meeting in January’.

SG, multinational industrial group, Johannesburg.