NMA Attorneys & Conveyancers

10/08/2026

Some people spend years trying to break records. Nomlayo Mabhena broke one before most people her age had finished figuring out their career path.
When Mabhena was admitted as a conveyancer at just 23 years old, she became the youngest Black female conveyancer in South African legal history. She completed her conveyancing qualification at the University of Pretoria, one of the country's most rigorous legal programmes, and entered a field that, just a century earlier, women weren't allowed into at all.

That context matters. In 1923, women were granted the legal right to practise as conveyancers for the first time. For decades after that, the profession remained largely white and largely male. The path for a young Black woman into conveyancing wasn't just a matter of study, it required breaking through barriers of race, gender and institutional access simultaneously.

Mabhena didn't just qualify. She did it faster than anyone before her, and in doing so, she redefined what the face of property law in South Africa can look like.

Conveyancing is one of the most technical areas of legal practice. It requires precision, legal knowledge, and an intimate understanding of the systems that govern property ownership in this country. Mabhena's achievement is a reminder that excellence in this field has no age, no gender, and no predetermined face.

She is not just an inspiration. She is a benchmark.

She Changed the Law.

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

Today, we celebrate the women who lead with courage, inspire with kindness, and make a difference every day.
We celebrate your power, your purpose, and your unwavering spirit.

Happy Women's Day from all of us at NMA Attorneys. 🌺

07/08/2026

In 1923, a woman in South Africa could not practise law. She could not be an attorney, an advocate, a notary, or a conveyancer. That changed on one day, in one year, because of one Act, and Irene Antoinette Geffen walked straight through the door it opened.

The Women's Legal Practitioners Act 7 of 1923 was a landmark piece of legislation. For the first time, women were legally permitted to be admitted to practise and to enrol as advocates, attorneys, notaries, and conveyancers. Within the same year the Act was passed, Geffen was admitted to the Transvaal Bar, becoming the first female lawyer in South Africa.

Let that land for a moment. Before 1923, it was not a matter of qualification, or merit, or skill. Women were simply prohibited by law from entering the legal profession entirely. Geffen didn't wait. She became an advocate, and in doing so, she didn't just open a door for herself, she opened a profession for every woman who came after her, including every female conveyancer, attorney and notary practising in South Africa today.

At NMA Attorneys, conveyancing sits at the heart of what we do. Every title deed we register, every property transfer we process, carries the fingerprints of the women who fought to be in this space at all.
We start our series here, at the beginning, because it matters to know who unlocked the room before you walked in.

She Changed the Law.

04/08/2026

For most of history, the law wasn't written for women. It said a married woman couldn't own property without her husband's permission. It said daughters couldn't inherit. It said women had no place in the courtroom, let alone on the bench.

Then, one by one, women disagreed.
This August, we're telling their stories.

‘She Changed the Law’ is our Women's Month series, a spotlight on the South African and African women who walked into a legal system that was stacked against them, and rewrote it. In property. In family law. In estates. In the workplace. In our courts.

Some you'll know. Most you won't. All of them changed the world you live in today, including the rights you exercise without even realising they had to be fought for.
At NMA Attorneys, the law is what we do every day. This month, we're honouring the women who made that law worth doing.

Follow along. Share their names. Because if you don't know her story, the law almost made sure you never would.