Jay Smith is a young professional based in Cape Town.
She is currently working in the legal field. It is here that she has gained experience working in various areas of the law, including but not limited to insolvency, commercial litigation, civil litigation, labour law, and cyber law.
Her strengths lie in embracing her dyslexic thinking to approach problems differently and develop innovative solutions.
She has previously worked as a business consultant for the Phaphama Social Enterprise Development Initiative, where she helped local entrepreneurs develop new strategies to grow their businesses. This work felt particularly meaningful because it involved empowering business owners with more advanced skills and knowledge to promote business growth and prosperity.
She enjoys teaching herself new skills and optimising the use of technology safely and responsibly to produce valuable results. She has taken online courses in cybersecurity and earned a Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate.
In her free time, she volunteers as a first responder, providing emergency first aid services to members of her local community.
Jay has held a wide range of leadership positions from her early schooling career into her professional life. She often says that learning and leading has always been at the core of what she does.
Cape Town Candidate Attorney Association (CTCAA): 2024 – 2025
Jay is currently working as a candidate attorney (CA) in Cape Town, a journey she started in July 2024 and is expected to finish by the end of June 2026.
Having a passion for teamwork, collaboration and giving back to the legal fraternity, Jay successfully applied for a position on the CTCAA executive committee in early August 2024. Despite having only been a CA for a month, Jay immediately knew that she wanted to expand her network and create opportunities for colleagues to connect and develop outside of the work environment.
Jay was initially selected to be part of the social responsibility portfolio, but by the beginning of 2025 had been elected as Vice-Chairperson of the executive committee.
In this role she was responsible for overseeing the functioning of the committee and assisting the various portfolios with their projects. These projects largely focused on the social well-being and professional development of young legal professionals.
This included organising and overseeing preparation classes for the competency-based examinations (board exams) which CAs are required to write. This function was carried out while Jay prepared diligently for her own board exams, which she successfully passed.
Jay views having served on the CTCAA’s executive committee as a great honour and learning experience. Here she learnt to manage a team of working professionals specialising in various areas of law and was able to assist in organising numerous events through careful planning and extensive collaboration. Events ranged from social mixers to large scale networking events with corporate sponsors.
Below is a link to a post made after one such successful event:
Rainbow UCT: 2022 – 2023
During Jay’s time as a law student at the University of Cape Town, she was actively involved in student leadership and promoting an inclusive academic environment, which allowed students to thrive.
In her final year in law school, Jay served as the Chairperson for Rainbow UCT (the university’s LGBT+ rights organisation).
Prior to taking on the role of chairperson, Jay had previously served as the vice-chairperson of the organisation. As part of Rainbow UCT, Jay was able to gain and develop a unique skill set that enables her to communicate and collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds to set and achieve social development goals.
In this role, she worked in collaboration with both students and university management to host social events, peaceful demonstrations (with sponsored catering), insightful talks and served as both a panellist and panel host at seminars.
Below is a link to a panel discussion, which Jay describes as having been a privilege to host for the opening of South African Pride Month at UCT in 2023:
After matriculating from Rustenburg High School for Girls, the former debater chose to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce in Law, at the Independent Institute of Education, what was then known as Varsity College and is now Emeris. During this time, she was a class representative, career centre ambassador, member of the juridical society and member of the student council (the VC voice). In addition to her extra-curricular involvement she was one of the top students in her class and was awarded the class prize for family law.
She was awarded this degree with distinction.
After completing her Bcom, Jay chose to further her legal education at the University of Cape Town, where she completed her Bachelor of Laws. During her time at UCT, she was a student mentor, served on the student mentorship committee, volunteered for SHAWCO Law (community outreach), was the chairperson of the university’s LGBT+ society, competed in international mooting competitions and was an active member of both the Investment Society and Women in Law Society. Aside from her involvement in campus life, she thrived in the academic environment and was awarded the final year class medal for banking law.