Lauren Kohn is the Director of LAGASA (the Law and Governance Academy of Southern Africa), a new institutional Initiative of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (‘GI’). She is spearheading this specialist bridging academy of excellence for multiple stakeholders with a view to building individual, and institutional, capacity to strengthen the rule of law in SA and beyond. Lauren is also an Admitted Advocate of the High Court of South Africa (‘SA’) (Practicing Roll) and a well-recognised Legal Scholar, both nationally and internationally. For around 12 years, since the completion of her LLM at UCT Law, Lauren served as a dedicated member of UCT’s Public Law Department where she lectured, and/or convened, among others: administrative, constitutional, open governance and environmental law. Aside from her genuine love of teaching, Lauren has proven to be an exceptional scholar. In 2021, she received the high honour of being inducted into UCT’s College of Young Fellows and is the only Inductee in UCT’s history to have been so recognised with a PhD still underway. Much of Lauren’s scholarship (see https://www.laurenkohn.co.za/academic-publications/ ) has been judicially endorsed and fed into law reform efforts in SA. During her tenure at UCT Law, Lauren won a record-breaking five (5) Law Faculty Research Prizes for producing ‘the most outstanding’ – typically ‘ground-breaking’ – legal scholarship. She has presented her research at numerous conferences, locally and abroad, as an invited scholar and, on several occasions, as Keynote Speaker. In 2016, Lauren was recognised as a Dean’s Nominee for the ‘Distinguished Teacher’s Award’, with her students in all her courses, consistently praising Lauren for her exceptional teaching abilities and genuine passion, and effectiveness, as an inspiring educationalist, mentor, and thought leader. Lauren’s PhD Project, on ‘the Rise and Role of SA’s Integrity & Accountability Fourth Branch of State’ has made her the leading South African expert on this complex and evolving subject, with its implications for corruption, and related, law-reform endeavours. Several of Lauren’s original theorisations and proposals have already been adopted, and/or engaged with, by various state actors in a multitude of state-capture redress and prevention efforts. In 2013, Lauren co-founded SA’s first online, access-to-justice platform, www.SALegalAdvice.co.za in order to enhance access to quality, expert legal services, and thus, justice for all. During the hard COVID-19 Lockdown (2020), Lauren provided all manner of legal advice on this forum and typically pro bono. Prior to joining the Academy and completing her LLM in 2013, Lauren loved her time in formal legal practice as an Attorney, where she worked for several years from 2008, at Webber Wentzel (in Alliance with Linklaters). During this time, Lauren played a pivotal role in the likes of expert, legal opinion drafting (on various public and private law matters); judicial reviews and other high court proceedings; strategic advice for commercial litigation; tax-related opinions (for example, on transfer pricing and the thin capitalisation rule); as well as a variety of contract drafting (for different commercial vehicles and public-private partnerships), including for the Bus Rapid Transit System contractual roll-out for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Even during her time in Academia, Lauren continued to synergise her love of ‘the law as it works in practice’ with her pursuit, and advancement of, legal knowledge. Much of Lauren’s consultancy advisory work fed into her impactful legal scholarship. Lauren has advised both public and private sector actors on a wide array of legal and commercial issues. Among others, she has done expert advisory work on tender-related disputes, legislative drafting and numerous legal opinions. Lauren is married to her partner of over 20 years, Andrew, and together they have four (4) children. She is passionately committed to finding effective solutions to seemingly intractable, state-societal problems; enhancing the rule of law and constitutionalism; and teaching, inspiring, and mentoring the next generation of lawyers, leaders, civil servants, activists, businesspersons and ‘social-entrepreneurs’.