Maisels Group Members

Lesirela has previously served as a Law Clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa for two years in 2001 and 2002. He later served articles of clerkship at the then Hofmeyr Herbstein and Gihwala Inc and practised as an attorney at various law firms, including at Bowman Gilfillan Inc, where he was variously exposed to, amongst others: General High Court Civil Litigation, Public Sector Procurement Law (Supply Chain Management), Labour Law, Aviation Law, Constitutional Law, Administrative law.

Between the years 2009 and 2014, Lesirela worked at Lawyers for Human Rights, where he served in various capacities as Head of the Refugee and Migrants Rights Law Clinics in Pretoria and Johannesburg, representing refugees; Head of Security of Farm Workers Project Law Clinic in the Western Cape and its satellite office in the Northern Cape, representing farm workers in eviction proceedings; and Head of Detention Monitoring Unit in Johannesburg, representing migrants against unlawful detention and deportations. In 2015, he completed pupillage at the Maisels Chambers before returning to Lawyers for Human Rights to serve as its inhouse counsel until August 2019. While serving as LHR’s inhouse counsel, he was appointed to double as the Head of the organisation’s Strategic Litigation Unit, which he served for a year before resigning to focus on his inhouse advocacy work. He returned to private practice at the Maisels Chambers in September 2019.

Throughout his professional life, Lesirela has represented clients at Disciplinary Enquiries; the CCMA arbitrations; Labour Court; Refugee Appeal Board; Magistrates’ Court; High Court; Land Claims Court; Supreme Court of Appeal; and the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He has also conducted a two-day facilitation process in a labour dispute between a labour union and a public sector employer.