Rehabilitated Lawyer

Director

Novcon

Compliance is an integral part of doing ethical business – not just a box to tick. But often when a lawyer is asked to give advice on compliance they will produce a convoluted document detailing all the problems a particular piece of legislation cause – without providing advice on potential solutions.

It was time for a new approach. At Novation, we believe that compliance can change minds. Increase sales. Reduce complaints. Add value. We can help you do things right and grow your business. We try to think more like entrepreneurs and less like lawyers. What we do is not about paying lip service to compliance but marrying it with good and ethical business practices.

Simply put: compliance is a gain. Not a pain. Work with us and you’ll see why.

Novation Consulting was founded by Elizabeth de Stadler and Paul Esselaar in 2013. Under the brand of Esselaar Attorneys, we’ve been providing law services since 2011 but felt the need to create a new company that could turn compliance on its head, shake the nonsense out of its pockets and present it in a fresh and exciting way.

Founding Director

Hey Plain Jane

Hey Plain Jane is an information design agency that helps companies achieve clarity in their communication. We create clear, innovative, and beautiful forms, terms and conditions, and policies to help these companies build trust and communicate with empathy.

What many companies see as an exercise in compliance is really an investment in the success of their business. Clear communication has the power to improve operations, enhance marketing, reduce customer complaints, and mitigate legal risk. Our founders are crusaders for clarity on every level.

The company was started in 2017 by Novation Consulting and Liezl van Zyl. We’re headquartered in Stellenbosch with an office in Cape Town’s foreshore. Hey Plain Jane has clients in financial services, artificial intelligence, higher education, and retail. We work with best in class designers, animators, and copy writers to simplify technical communication.

Esselaar Attorneys

Her practice comprises of general regulatory compliance due diligences; training and workshops on regulatory compliance; opinion work on the Consumer Protection Act (the CPA), the National Credit Act, the Protection of Personal Information Bill, Banking Law, Insurance, Medical Law, Marketing Law, Contract Law; and plain language drafting.

She conducts regular workshops and training sessions on the CPA and other consumer legislation for businesses and for Law@work, a unit situated within the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town.

In addition writing her dissertation (The consumer’s right to quality goods: a comparative analysis of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008) she is the co-author of a consumer law textbook and a guide on plain language legal drafting which is to be published by Juta Publishing. She is the editor of the Consumer Law Review, which provides a montly update on consumer law related matters. A free subscription is available through www.jutalaw.co.za.

Senior Associate

University of Cape Town

Teaching and research assistant in Contract Law and Comparative Legal History.

Teaching and research assistant

Webber Wentzel

She was employed as an associate in the practice of Daniel le Roux and Lisa Swaine in the Insurance and Legal Liability Practice Group.  Their practice consists of general Commercial litigation, Insurance law and Insurance litigation.

She was exposed to litigation both in the High Court of South Africa as well as the Magistrates' Courts.
During this time the third draft of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 was published.  She conducted an overview of the Act and wrote several opinions for companies in various industries and the Law Society of the Northern Provinces on the impact of the Bill in general with particular emphasis on the impact of the Act on their terms and conditions and exclusions of liability.  

She conducted several internal training sessions on the Act as well as a series of talks to clients of the Webber Wentzel. She was also invited to do workshops at the Chamber of Business, the National Housing Loan Fund and the Law Society of the Northern Provinces.

Candidate Attorney and Associate

Rehabilitated lawyer, #funlawyer, legal designer, plain language fanatic, (retired) amateur skateboarder, humour researcher, (un)professional speaker, knows a little about privacy law, etm.

I call myself a rehabilitated lawyer™.  I have been a litigator, a corporate lawyer, and a privacy and data protection specialist. Now I am a #legaldesigner, a #professionalspeaker, a #plainlanguage fanatic and at parties I tell people I am a cattle inseminator so they don't tell me about their forking divorces. 

Wanna work with me? 

Here is what I do:
🤓 I use #legaldesign and #plainlanguage to create #legal documents that people actually want to read. I have done this with terms & conditions, commercial #contracts, insurance policies, #privacy notices, terms on application forms... if it is legal, I design it.
🙃 I 'rehabilitate' #lawyers and #complianceofficers by doing pep talks and workshops on soft skills like #communication, effective #riskmanagement, #changemanagement magic, and how to look after yourself with #funlaw. Yes, having #fun and using #humour at work is a skill!
😎 I ❤️ #compliance. I help organisations to understand their compliance obligations and identify, plan and implement the changes they need to make to meet them!
🦕 Writing #policies is my jam! On any topic; the harder and more boring the better. I find ways to make sure that people (want to) read them, because if it is not read, it is dead!
✏️ I am a pretty motivational #speaker and a bit of a legal stand-up #comedian. I have done keynotes and training on #legaldesign, rehabilitating #lawyers and #complianceofficers, #funlaw, effective #compliance, #legalwriting, #plainlanguage, #behaviouraleconomics, #changemanagement, #privacy and #dataprotection, #ethics...I love the challenge of making any topic interesting!
🤬...and yes, I can help organisations with #privacy compliance. I wrote a book about South Africa's #POPIA with my work wives. Why the swearing? I have a little bit of #POPIA fatigue, but I will get over it.

If you need help with any of these things and feel like having some fun, send me an email at elizabeth@novcon.co.za! Let's chat!

This is my new lock screen wallpaper. The photo was taken on a day Ilze Luttig Hattingh, Anna Posthumus Meyjes, and I were foraging for mushrooms in a forest near Helsinki.

I think this is what Bridget McNulty is talking about when she refers to a glimmer of joy. Not the actual experience, that was unbridled joy run amok. The photo is the glimmer. Everytime I see it (which is often now) I remember that wonderful day.

Disclaimer: Don’t do this at home kids. That mushroom is poisonous. We had a professional chef with us. 

#joy

Elizabeth de Stadler 🎈

I write award-winning plain-language contracts, make POPIA compliance easy, and perform improv comedy. On weekends I practice Tai Chi, crochet blankets and read books.

Legal Designer & Innovator I Founder of Aclara Legal Design I Helping today’s lawyers embrace user-centricity, AI & tech and design

Writer. Diabetes advocate. CEO and co-founder. #dailyglimmers

I teach lawyers the human skills that AI can only imitate. I am a (un)professional speaker, a plain language fanatic, and a mental health advocate. I am scared of moths. And butterflies. They are just moths in drag.

Authenticity is not the same as informal, or unprofessional. 

I can only use myself as an example.

I like quirky t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, and swearing. I am an androgynous lesbian, with (very) wild hair. I have tattoos on my forearms, because what's the point if I can't see them?

I have the privilege of working for myself, which means no dress code. I left law firm life, in part, because I always felt like I was in drag.

But I teach inter- and intrapersonal skills. When I speak at a corporate or a law firm with a formal dress code, I know that if I show up in ripped jeans, a swear-y t-shirt, and let my tattoos do the talking, I’ll lose my audience before I’ve even opened my mouth. 

So I’ll wear the suit, but I’ll keep the sneakers and a loud T-shirt underneath. 

Wearing the suit is my version of saying, “I respect your rules, and I’m showing a little bit of myself anyway.”

That’s not 'selling out.' It’s strategy.

Authenticity isn’t rebellion. It's knowing yourself well enough to decide what belongs in the room. Or, as Dolly Parton puts it: 

'I know who I am, I know what I can and can't do. I know what I will and won't do. I know what I'm capable of,  and I don't agree to do things that I don't think I can pull off.'

PS: What won't I do? I won't say I have 'a partner' instead of a wife. I am okay with making people uncomfortable about that. 


#savetheemdash

taplio

Elizabeth de Stadler 🎈's Linkedin Analytics

Elizabeth de Stadler

Performance ScoreElizabeth de Stadler's LinkedIn Performance

Elizabeth de Stadler's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

.css-6ytdur{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39, 43, 72, 1) 0%, rgba(33, 47, 183, 1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Elizabeth de Stadler 🎈's Linkedin Analytics

Elizabeth de Stadler

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Elizabeth de Stadler's LinkedIn Performance

Elizabeth de Stadler's Best Posts .css-1emoo84{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:400;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);}(last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Elizabeth de Stadler 🎈's Linkedin Analytics

Performance ScoreElizabeth de Stadler's LinkedIn Performance

Elizabeth de Stadler's Best Posts (last 30 days)