Vivienne Lawack

Professor Vivienne Lawack joined the University of the Western Cape (UWC) as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic in 2015 after serving as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law at the former University of Port Elizabeth (now Nelson Mandela University) since 2008.

As Executive Dean she was responsible for providing strategic direction and managing the operations of the faculty, as well as its core functions of teaching and learning, research and engagement. Prof Lawack is responsible for the UWC’s learning and teaching activities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her portfolio includes academic planning, teaching and learning activities, the continued development of technology-enhanced teaching and learning, community engagement, and information and communication services amongst others. She led UWC through the COVID-19 crisis as Acting Rector and Vice-Chancellor from 1 February to 31 July 2020.

She obtained a BJuris (cum laude), LLB, and LLM from NMU as well as an LLD from Unisa. Prof Lawack also completed the SARB/Manchester Business School Leadership Development Programme in the United Kingdom. Prof Lawack is an admitted Advocate of the South African High Court on the non-practising roll and a Professor of Law in the Department of Mercantile and Labour Law in UWC’s Faculty of Law. She specialises in legal and regulatory frameworks pertaining to the payment system, banking system and financial markets.

Her research publications centre around legal and regulatory frameworks in payment systems, fintech, and banking and financial markets, with a particular lens on financial inclusion, financial integrity and migration. Before joining the higher education sector, Prof Lawack worked in the public and private sector as a senior payment system analyst, senior legal consultant, and Manager: Financial Safety Net at the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). She worked as Senior Legal Counsel for Strate Limited, South Africa's central securities depository, where she was also responsible for the amendment of the depository rules known as the Strate Rules.

Prof Lawack served as President of the South African Law Deans’ Association from 2010 to 2015, where she played a leading role in developing legal education in South Africa, liaising with the organised legal professions, and the promotion of a national qualification standard for the LLB degree, the latter under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education. Because of her legal expertise, Prof Lawack has offered input and been involved in various legislative drafting projects, amongst them as consultant and drafting reviewer for the SADC Model Law on National Payment Instruments, which was approved by the SADC Committee of Central Bank Governors in 2017.

Prof Lawack chairs and is a member of various boards and councils including serving as current Chairperson of the South African DVC Academic Forum, as a Director on the Board of the African Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation (AfriC), and as a Board member of the Kepler Institute in Kigali, Rwanda. She is a former Chairperson of the Cape Higher Education Consortium Board and a returning member of the South African Judicial Institute Council, chaired by the Chief Justice of SA.