About Us

The firm’s logo of a disc depicts the shield of protection, which resonates with the firm’s motto. This is found in ancient Vedic history which upholds morals, ethics and values.

Vasanthie Pillai graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (then known as University of Natal – Howard College) in 1990 with a B.A. degree and in 1992 with a LLB degree.  She was admitted as an attorney in 1995 and has been practising as an attorney since then under the name and style of Vasanthie Pillai and Associates, attending to all aspects of civil litigation (including divorce, maintenance, debt collection, claims arising from motor vehicle collisions, etc.) criminal litigation (bail applications, trials and appeals), drafting of contracts, Wills and Trusts, as well as the administration of deceased estates.

In 2002 she was admitted a conveyancer and expanded her practice to include attending to property transfers, bond registrations and cancellations for Standard Bank and Nedbank on an ad hoc basis.

She completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in 2006 and has used the skills she acquired to lecture law modules on a part-time basis at tertiary institutions.  She presents training for the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) in Criminal Court Practice and supervises students in civil litigation casework.  She has also been appointed, since 2010, as an examiner for the LSSA (Legal Education and Development) and currently also serves as an examiner for the Attorneys Admission Board examinations. She is occasionally called upon by the Department of Labour to serve as a presiding officer in compensation fund claims.  In 2019 she was appointed as an Acting Magistrate and presided over both criminal and civil matters.  She is also an accredited mediator, specializing in divorce mediation.  As a Notary Public she is able to prepare and register ante-nuptial contracts, notarial bonds, wills, leases, servitudes and authenticate documents for international use.

Her work ethic is to provide clients with a seamless and efficient experience, attention to detail, regular communication and quick turn-around times being high priorities in service delivery. 

She ensures that each client obtains her personal attention and endeavours to resolve matters expeditiously and with the least financial impact on the client.

Vasanthie enjoys reading, writing, traveling and photography.

Kievan Padayachee graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Howard College campus in 2019 with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and was invited to become a member of the exclusive Golden Key Honours Society.  He displayed leadership qualities at UKZN to such an extent that he was selected as their sole representative, tasked with attending conferences around Germany on behalf of the University.  During his time at UKZN, Kievan was also selected to be a tutor for his underclassmen in the law degree programme, where his tutored a wide array of modules such as Property, Contract, Delict, Family and even Constitutional Law. 

Kievan is currently serving his articles as a candidate legal practitioner with our firm where he has already gained considerable experience in litigation, both in drafting and representing clients in court which is where he thrives the most as he has the innate ability to think on his feet and articulate himself, giving full effect to all his knowledge.  His confident personality and his desire to always be on top of his game has made the courtroom his favourite playground.

Kievan loves animals and the outdoors and has a passion for both law and football.  If he’s not helping clients in a court of law, you can find him running with his team on the soccer court.

Eve Venketiah, began her career at Nedbank International Division in 1995 until 2008 holding various specialised positions. Services rendered were within the ambits of Foreign Exchange which included local and international contracts, global payments, shipping contracts, vetting documentations, evidence of importation, reporting of non-compliance to SARB International Banking. She completed all necessary banking related training and continuous assessments with distinctions. She gained a wealth of knowledge and experience working with clients both locally and internationally and earned numerous accolades for her outstanding client services. She then resigned from the bank to fulfil her goal of becoming an attorney.

She took a stance of stepping foot into the law field by attending and completing studies at South African Law school and attaining her Senior Paralegal’s Diploma with cum laude in 2011. She then joined Pather & Pather Attorneys in 2012 briefly for practical exposure serving under Sivi Pather, the principal Attorney particularly in their Estates Department.

She then proceeded to obtain her LLB Degree and joined Municipal Employees Pension Fund, where she began utilising her law skills. Here she gained extensive experience interacting with various local municipalities in South Africa.  She managed the Durban office servicing clients along the coastal region. She also fulfilled the role of marketing at various conferences in Durban. Here she interacted and acquainted herself with numerous politicians, city mayors and city managers. She earned many accolades for outstanding client services.

After completing and graduating with her LLB degree, she then completed her full term Practical Legal Training (PLT), subsequently writing and successfully completing all her board (attorneys admission) exams.

Eve is currently serving her articles as her final step in admission as an attorney.

Eve’s interests are maintaining client satisfaction. Her style of achieving such satisfactions hinge on maintaining high standards of integrity, accountability, trust and confidences. In her humility she prides herself with under promising and over delivering.

Her motto:

“Why is there never enough time to do a job properly, yet there is always enough time to do it again?!”

“Autograph each piece of work with excellence! ”

Haseena Shaik-Abdulla completed her LLB degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard college campus in 2018.  She attended the Practical Legal Training (PLT) course from July 2019 to January 2020 through Legal Education and Development (LEAD) of the Law Society of South Africa. This has contributed to her practical knowledge of the application of the law. Haseena prides herself as a life-long learner, always keeping herself abreast of legal developments. She is a leader in her own right, a self-disciplined individual and an all-round team player who is prepared to go beyond the call of duty, making herself available even after work hours and on weekends to ensure that urgent matters are dealt with timeously.

Haseena has successfully completed her Board (Attorneys admission) exams.  As soon as her period of articles is completed, she will be admitted as an attorney.

Haseena enjoys reading, listening to music and outdoor adventures. She is an animal lover and believes in the rights for animals and the imposition of harsher sanctions for animal abuse.

Despite being a full service law firm, we ensure that each of client’s matters receive the appropriate specialist skill that it requires which is achieved by our committed staff complement.

All practitioners are firmly committed to excellence, which is attained through our passion for practising law, our work ethic, attention to detail, diligence, efficiency and ultimately client satisfaction.

These are written agreements that can be concluded between an attorney and client on the basis that the attorney will only be entitled to recover remuneration for their services if the client is successful in its claim. The agreement is concluded and signed by the attorney and the client upon accepting the mandate and prior to the initiation of legal proceedings.  The fees recoverable by an attorney will constitute a percentage of the client’s successful claim.

An attorney is entitled to charge up to twice the amount of his usual fees but not more than 25% of the amount that judgment was granted for.  Contingency fee agreements are governed by the Contingency Fees Act which prohibit contingency fee agreements in certain types of matters such as divorces.