Leading South African law firm Webber Wentzel has named Amy Eliason “The Write Candidate” as winner of its first Candidate Attorney (CA) Writing Programme competition. Eliason received the award from Myrle Vanderstraten, editor of Without Prejudice, at the annual Webber Wentzel Legal Journalist of the Year Awards Ceremony on 5 November 2014.

The winning article was titled “Crowd funding and the US$ 40 000 plus potato salad”, and was selected from over 40 entries received. It explores crowd funding and the lack of certainty provided by the South African legal system for financing solutions of this kind. It investigates the lack of regulation of the industry; considers whether crowd funding platforms are able to receive deposits and be seen as banks as defined in the Banks Act 1994 of 1990; and examines the risk of fraud involved with such ventures.

Eliason says, "At Webber Wentzel every effort is made to encourage us to nurture our legal skills. The CA Writing Programme is just another example of this and has taught us that, with guidance and a little push in the right direction, each of us is capable of making an indelible contribution to the legal profession."

The ability to write in a way that appeals to colleagues, clients, the broader business community and members of the press is an invaluable skill in the legal industry. Webber Wentzel’s CA Writing Programme was introduced to train CAs in the art of writing clear, persuasive and legally informative articles. To ensure a healthy degree of competition, the firm offers a prize for the CA who writes the best legal article as judged by an independent panel.

Articles entered into the competition will be published on Webber Wentzel's newly-launched blog, The Write Candidate.