Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar
Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar
Current
Advocate
Johannesburg Society of Advocates
The Protea Group (profile link)
Effective 2026
Former
Pupil advocate
Johannesburg Society of Advocates
Victoria Mxenge Group of Advocates
2025
Curator: Public Engagement
Constitutional Court Trust
Constitutional Court of South Africa
2018–2024 (promoted in 2022)
Public Programmes Coordinator
NWU Gallery
North-West University
2017
PhD
Dikgang Moseneke Fellow (2022–2024) and Mellon scholar (2022)
Centre for Rhetoric Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town
2022–current
Also awarded the Sir William Solomon Memorial Scholarship (2023) and a Wilfred Kramer Law Grant (2023).
My PhD is focussed on the aesthetic and cultural transformation of South African law and jurisprudence after apartheid through an analysis of the Constitutional Court’s symbolism, including its logo, building architecture, art collection and the notion of ‘justice under a tree’.
LLM
Media law (research dissertation) – cum laude
North-West University (2017–2019)
Awarded by NWU Law: Outstanding Academic Achievement in Masters of Law Research – Cum Laude.
My masters degree is focussed on the regulation of the South African print and broadcast media.
LLB
North-West University (2013–2016)
Awarded a Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund bursary.
Professional development (selected)
Protea International Curatorial Exchange, John Ellerman Foundation
Visiting scholar to the UK Supreme Court and UK Parliament, London (April 2022)
Research award and selected participant
Law Scholars Works-in-Progress workshop, hosted by the Centre for Law and Society (Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town) at the Bertha Retreat, Western Cape (May 2024)
Selected participant
Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin
Theoretical Thinking and Writing in Art (certificate course, 2020)
Publications (selected)
Klyntji: Founding and publishing editor (2014–2024)
Klyntji, a registered Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) and Non-Profit Organisation (NPO), publishes an online Afrikaans journal (klyntji.com) and an annual literary zine (Ons Klyntji), focussed on diverse and progressive South African arts & culture.
Chapter contribution for TransAfrica: The Languages of Postqueerness
Academic book published by Bloomsbury (2024)
Art & Justice: A short monograph series published by the Constitutional Court Trust (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024)
Op-eds and articles: Mail&Guardian’s Thought Leader, DG Murray Trust’s The Human Factor, LitNet, Without Prejudice law magazine
Guest lectures and presentations (selected)
Department of Art History, College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2024)
Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria (2024)
Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg (2022)
Stellenbosch University Museum (2021)
School of the Arts, University of Pretoria (2021)
North-West University (2019)
Conferences (selected)
Argumentation 2023: Performativity in Law conference
Masaryk University, Faculty of Law, Brno, Czech Republic
Presenter
Awarded UCT doctoral travel grant
World Congress of Constitutional Law 2024
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Presenter
South African Museums Association National Conference (2021, 2022)
Presenter
Awarded FitzSimons Award for best paper presented at the SAMA National Conference 2021
Society (selected)
NWU Gender Benefit Network (university organisation)
Contributing member (2017–2019)
Black Lawyers Association, Student Chapter NWU Potchefstroom, Branch Executive Committee
Media & Publicity Officer (2016)
Including:
Administrative and public
Commercial
Competition
Constitutional and human rights
Contract
Defamation
Delictual
Environmental
General litigation and motions
Heritage and preservation
Intellectual property
Labour
Media and entertainment
Email: francois@lioncachet.com
Mobile: 083 9500 122
Advocate group profile
Francois Lion-Cachet is an advocate at the Johannesburg Society of Advocates, with a practice anchored in constitutional and public law, and work in commercial, administrative, media, and general civil matters.
He is also a scholar in legal rhetoric, finalising a PhD at UCT Law's Centre for Rhetoric Studies as the Dikgang Moseneke Fellow (2022–2024) and Mellon Foundation scholar. His doctoral research examines the aesthetic and visual dimensions of South African constitutional jurisprudence — the symbolism, architecture, art collection and ceremonial life of the courts — as sites where law constructs its own authority and legitimacy.
Between 2018 and 2024 he worked at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, serving the Constitutional Court Trust in a public engagement role, promoting constitutionalism through the Court's art collection and related programmes. He undertook research at the UK Supreme Court on a John Ellerman Foundation award in 2022.
He is the founding editor of Klyntji, a progressive Afrikaans arts and culture journal operated as a Public Benefit Organisation. He has contributed to academic and public platforms locally and internationally, and has presented guest lectures and at conferences in both spheres. He was awarded his LLM in media law cum laude from the NWU in 2019.