For Fatima Salijee, Managing Partner of SGV Attorneys, leadership is not defined by position, but by impact. More than two decades after helping to establish a women-led legal practice in a profession still grappling with genuine equality, she remains driven by the same principles that shaped her journey from the outset – integrity, resilience, opportunity and the determination to leave the legal profession stronger for those who follow.
Fatima Salijee did not grow up with an unwavering conviction that she would become a lawyer. What she did know was that education would provide an opportunity to change the narrative of her family.
The precise route was less certain.
Within her community at the time, conventional definitions of professional success tended to point young people towards becoming doctors, lawyers or accountants. Salijee possessed a strong personality, an ability to structure arguments and a natural capacity to absorb information quickly. Law ultimately became what she describes as a “last-minute decision”, while studying accounting alongside it allowed her to keep her options open.
What began without a meticulously mapped career plan would ultimately become the vehicle through which she could pursue a much broader purpose.
“Law does not define me – it is the career through which I serve,” Salijee explains.
It is an important distinction. Rather than the profession itself defining her journey, she points to the experiences encountered along the way – both positive and difficult – as having shaped the lawyer and leader she has become. Those experiences have taught her patience, gratitude and resilience, while strengthening her commitment to creating positive change in the lives of others.
That philosophy has become integral to her approach to leadership.
There is, she believes, no single leadership philosophy that can be applied to every situation. Leadership instead demands an ongoing willingness to learn, evolve and improve.
“Integrity, to me, is the hallmark of great leadership,” she says. “My goal is to leave behind a trail of young brilliance, empowered by the opportunities and values we cultivate today.”
Building something different
When SGV Attorneys was established in 2005, the South African legal environment looked considerably different for women aspiring to build and lead their own practices.
There were relatively few law firms owned and led by women, and Salijee was determined to become part of a generation changing that reality.
The ambition was not simply to create a successful legal practice. She wanted the firm to demonstrate to younger women entering the profession that leadership and ownership were achievable, despite the obstacles they might encounter.
An important figure in turning that ambition into reality was George van der Merwe, Salijee’s then senior and mentor. His confidence in her abilities, at a time when entrusting leadership to a young woman was far less commonplace, helped drive the establishment of the firm.
That support, together with the contribution of business partner Clive Govender and her family, has remained fundamental to the firm’s development.
Salijee readily acknowledges that one of the lessons leadership has taught her is that she cannot do everything herself.
Today, her role requires balancing the strategic direction of SGV Attorneys with oversight of operations and maintaining meaningful client relationships. It means keeping track of numerous moving parts while ensuring accountability, mitigating risk and maintaining client confidence.
That same belief in collective strength informs the way she manages the firm’s professionals.
Her leadership philosophy rests on trust, integrity and empowerment. Micromanagement, she argues, has little place in developing excellent attorneys. Instead, professionals need experience, mentorship and the opportunity to think independently and take ownership of their work.
Independence, however, does not mean isolation.
Collaboration remains central to SGV Attorneys’ approach, allowing professionals to share knowledge, develop confidence and solve problems collectively.
“For me personally, mediocrity is unacceptable,” Salijee says. “I strive to create a team around me who can think laterally.”
Seeing the bigger picture
That ability to look beyond a single issue is also reflected in the firm’s legal offering.
SGV Attorneys operates across employment, procurement, municipal and public law, commercial litigation and forensic investigations. These areas frequently intersect, particularly within South Africa’s public sector.
Rather than treating each legal challenge in isolation, Salijee says the firm’s multidisciplinary approach allows it to consider the governance, regulatory and operational environments surrounding a client’s immediate legal problem.
The objective is to identify risks early and provide advice that is both legally sound and commercially practical.
It is particularly relevant in an environment in which Salijee identifies good governance, ethical leadership and accountability as among the most significant challenges confronting South African institutions.
Procurement provides a clear example. Ensuring lawful and transparent processes that are resistant to fraud or abuse requires more than regulatory compliance alone. Strong governance, ethical leadership and robust oversight must extend across every stage of the process.
The changing workplace is presenting new challenges too, with Salijee identifying technology, and artificial intelligence in particular, as a development likely to have a significant impact on South African employment law in the years ahead.
Transformation beyond theory
Perhaps nowhere is the distinction between policy and lived reality clearer to Salijee than in the advancement of women within the legal profession.
There has unquestionably been progress.
More women are studying law and being admitted as attorneys, while recognition of the contribution women make to leadership, strategy and client engagement has grown. Transformation and gender equity have become established parts of the profession’s vocabulary.
Yet Salijee argues that what exists in theory does not always translate into meaningful opportunity.
“After 25 years in practice, I am still fighting for meaningful work,” she says.
Majority women-owned firms may, for example, secure appointments to government legal-service panels, yet those appointments do not necessarily result in instructions being allocated.
The barriers have consequently become less obvious, but they have not disappeared.
Access to high-value briefs, equitable allocation of work and inclusion in the spaces where important decisions are made remain areas where Salijee believes progress continues to lag behind the promise of transformation.
Entrenched attitudes and long-standing professional networks can continue to favour male-dominated firms, requiring women to work harder to establish credibility and secure complex, high-stakes matters.
It is a challenge Salijee understands personally.
When she began leading a firm in 2005, she had to earn trust and assert her position within a male-dominated profession. Her response was to allow the quality and consistency of her work to challenge perceptions.
The experience strengthened her resilience, but it also informs how she views her responsibility towards the women following behind her.
Leaving a trail of young brilliance
For Salijee, established women leaders have a responsibility to do more than speak about transformation. They must actively create opportunities.
Mentorship, she believes, needs to be accessible, honest and rooted in real experience. That means sharing lessons, providing training and exposure, and advocating for talented younger professionals in rooms where they may not yet have a voice.
“Leadership is not about position – it is about impact,” she says.
It is here that Salijee’s ambitions for SGV Attorneys and her personal legacy become inseparable.
She wants the firm to continue growing sustainably, expanding its footprint and strengthening its reputation for integrity-driven work while securing opportunities reflective of the calibre of its team.
Personally, she remains committed to evolving as a leader, recognising that leadership requires continual learning, introspection and adaptation.
But success will ultimately be measured by more than the size or reputation of the firm.
Salijee wants SGV Attorneys to demonstrate what can be achieved when a practice is built on hard work, trust, values and a commitment to uplifting others. She hopes to be remembered as someone who created opportunities, led authentically and refused to allow structural barriers to determine what was possible.
Most importantly, she wants the women entering law after her to encounter a profession more equitable than the one she entered.
“If the next generation of women lawyers can look at our journey and feel empowered to claim their space with confidence, then that would be the legacy I am proud to leave behind.”