- Whether it’s a labour dispute, a contract gone wrong, or a family matter, most South Africans will need legal help at some point.
- On 25 October 2025, the Johannesburg Society of Advocates (JSA) will issue the world’s first digital legal briefs through AuxBrief,
- At the helm is Advocate Tiny Seboko SC, a woman whose life has been all about challenging the status quo,
When you look at the force of nature Seboko is today, it’s hard to imagine her beginnings. She grew up in the poverty-stricken informal settlement of Rietgat, sharing a single room with siblings, cousins, and her grandmother. There was no electricity, no running water, and a bucket toilet shared by the community.
Even with so little, Seboko says there was love in abundance. Evenings gathered around the television with her father, a policeman, watching courtroom dramas, is where her love of law took root. When the family later moved to Eldorado Park in Soweto and her father started a security business, she told him she wanted to study law. His answer was firm, “I will not waste my money on my daughter’s education, a girl should marry and have children.”
Seboko refused that future and then started to build her own, brick by brick. Step one was to earn an income, so she first took a cleaning job at a supermarket. Step two was access to study; she learned that a government post could lead to a bursary and began targeting the courts. Growing up had made her multilingual, fully fluent in Setswana and Afrikaans, so she started targeting interpreter roles. She received no after no, but she kept at it, until she was finally appointed as an interpreter at Alberton court in 1993.
From that foothold she continued to climb without letting go. The bursary paid the fees, the LLB was earned at night after work, pupillage at Maisels Chambers was completed while she mourned her brother. She qualified as an advocate and, several years later, took silk as Senior Counsel, joining the small cohort of black women at the top of the Bar.
Giving back, building forward
Seboko’s journey, however, was never only about her. From the moment her career gained traction, she gave back, starting at home. At 25 she bought a house for her mother and began supporting her family, changing their prospects for good.
She also built three outreach programmes in her community in Eldorado Park, where gangs, teenage pregnancy, and drugs pull at children, and she is still there, week after week. The first gathers township girls after school to map safe routes home, keep up with schoolwork, and speak up when risk shows. The second steadies the women and girls who shoulder the care, with hands-on workshops and referrals so no one carries the load alone.
Seboko's Book Joint serves as a dedicated space for literacy and mentoring. In this environment, grandmothers (gogos) are paired with learners after school. Grade 4 students receive instruction on reading for comprehension, while teenagers participate in straightforward discussions covering topics like pregnancy, substance use, and career pathways.
Changing the system from within
In her professional capacity, she also works tirelessly to change the status quo, which is likely what led to her being elected as Chair of the Transformation, Briefing Patterns and Pro Bono Committee at the JSA.
Seboko says that although she was fortunate to have dedicated mentors at the JSA who guided her, the reality for many others in the profession is starkly different. Cliquism and discrimination still show up in the profession, and young advocates, especially women and previously disadvantaged counsel, struggle to secure briefs. After all their sacrifices to qualify, too many have no choice but to close their practices within the first two years.
One of the main reasons these issues persist is that the briefing pipeline is still largely manual. A client hires an attorney, and if the case goes to court, the attorney must brief an advocate. Finding that advocate still means dozens of phone calls, emails, and diary checks. Under time pressure, attorneys then automatically lean on the network they already know, while young, emerging advocates are denied opportunities for work.
The brief that changes everything
This is exactly where AuxBrief comes in. Conceived by attorney Rose-Marie van den Boogert, founder and director of Auxcon, AuxBrief is best described as the “Uber” of the legal profession. It digitises the briefing process, making it faster, fairer, and more transparent for all.
An attorney begins by uploading a matter to the system, setting the fees and requirements upfront. AuxBrief then identifies available advocates who meet those criteria. Once matched, those advocates receive live notifications and can respond in real time. The attorney is then able to review the profiles and appoint the most suitable advocate for the matter. Beyond seamless matching, AuxBrief ensures that rates and timelines are agreed upfront and keeps work and hours in one place. The result is fewer disputes, greater control, and transparency for advocates, attorneys, and clients alike.
At the official launch of AuxBrief at Houghton Hotel on 25 October, aptly themed “The Brief That Changes Everything,” Vezi de Beer Inc will be the first attorney firm to issue the first batch of live digital briefs from a leading banking institution. JSA advocates, trained on these matters in advance, will respond in real time.
“As a firm, we’ve long wanted to support transformation in a practical way,” says Mustafa Mohamed, director at Vezi de Beer Inc. “AuxBrief will allow us to specify requirements upfront, for example, female advocates with 0 to 5 years’ experience, and connect with them directly.” Together, these steps signal more than a technical fix, they mark the start of a new chapter for the legal profession itself.
“This moment is not only for the JSA or even South Africa,” concludes Seboko. “It is proof to the world that transformation and transparency can be built into the system itself, not left to chance, or goodwill. From here on forward, justice will never be the same again.”
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