Watch Intro Video

Watch this short, informative video

(to avoid a long legal battle later)

Pricing options

While we are still building new elements into the course we are charging less than the full price of the course (which is about the price of two hours of an advocate's time - R5000)

Design your Company and How It Works

Make sure the founding document (MOI) are what you would want

Hi there, I am Advocate Douglas Shaw and as an advocate I have dealt with cases that have turned on points of company law. I have also seen situations where people have lost control of their companies because they didn’t understand company law.

It amazes me that people spend their lives growing their wealth with other people in a company structure without understanding how that company actually works. And even if you knew a bit about this before 2010, it’s now all changed with the new Companies Act in that year. Much of this turns on the Memorandum of Incorporation or MOI. This document is now extremely flexible and has certain defaults that most people are not aware of.

For example, if you are a major shareholder in a company and yet the MOI is structure a certain way, the directors can chose to have every AGM in, say, Mongolia. They will go at the company’s expense and shareholders will have to pay their own way. A great way to make sure the directors get a free hand. This is just one example of about 50 important choices that need to be made in a MOI and that this course will teach you. Yet, most companies are running off a standard template that they got from their accountant and have not thought through any of these 50 issues.

If any significant amount of your wealth is tied up in any company, big or small, private or public, and you have not applied your mind to the structure of the company and its MOI, and how its MOI should be, then you need to invest in this course. This course will give you the knowledge and skills to be on top of your corporate politics and governance. It will reduce your stress levels because you will be in control because you will know what is going on.

As you may have notices, legal professionals are not cheap. So better to educate yourself first before you deal with them. Then you will get the best out of them because you will ask the right questions, not just the basics. Some of my friends talk to me about their corporate structure because they want to check if their lawyer is doing the right thing for them. This course will help you understand what is going on.

An advocate in this field will generally charge about R2500 an hour for a consultation. Some charge a lot more. For less than the cost of two hours of consultation (R5000), you will get ultimately more than five times the amount of consultation. Compare this price to the legal fees you will pay if you don’t know what you are doing, and the advantage you might receive over competitors, internal and external, by becoming knowledgeable in this area. I will tell you how to I will take you through the Companies Act and you will get a copy of it of your own. We also discuss the key cases that affect company law I will also take you through the various documents: mostly the MOI but also shareholder agreements to some degree. I will give you examples of these documents too. Plus key strategic insights and tips about what you should do in various common situations and how to be aware of tricks the other side might play. I will tell you the practical know-how as well as the law. Think of how long it would take and how much it would cost to try and find out all this information on your own. You could always get an advocate to take you through it step by step at R2500 an hour 😊

In addition to my own knowledge and insights, you will also in time get video interviews with other legal professionals who are experienced in various aspects of this area. And best of all its all done in my beautiful Scottish accent which is a pleasure to listen to.

Depending on the time that you buy this course, you may get it for a discount from the two-hour consultation price. This is because we intend to augment the course based on the feedback and questions asked by our first few groups of students. If you buy early you will also get access to this new material as we add videos and resources that people like you ask for. As we do this we will increase the price. Initially, there will be about 7 hours of content. That is R17,500 at advocacy rates and we aim to build it to 12 hours ultimately or R30,000 worth of content.

See you on the other side.

Course curriculum

  • 1
    Changes in the New Companies Act (Part 2 of 11) (South Africa)

Time to Decide

(Taking the risk of not really understanding how to control your company legally and the risks of expensive litigation later vs understanding company law and MOIs for a very small price relative to the risks).

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