I help time-starved lawyers + law firms build & strategically position what makes them unique into their online presence to connect with qualified clients and high-quality referral networks consistently. 

Are you ready to leverage LinkedIn for business growth? 
As a trained lawyer, I'll help you with industry-specific business development strategies. 
Short on time? I can even handle it all for you.        

𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙑𝙄𝘾𝙀𝙎 
I offer custom online business development plans and strategies for lawyers, law firms, & business owners...

🟥   LINKEDIN CONTENT MARKETING (DONE FOR YOU)
▹ custom plans to create your online presence
▹ manage your online activity 
▹ engagement to build authority + develop quality client relationships consistently.

🟥   LINKEDIN CONSULTING (DONE WITH YOU)
Audit discovery & strategy sessions to help create content that resonates with your clients to build solid connections. 

🟥   LINKEDIN WORKSHOPS 
Presentations & workshops for law firms, law schools, conferences, law firm retreats, bar associations, & meetings.  
Topics include:
▹ LinkedIn Leveraged Lawyers
▹ Yawnworthy to Trustworthy Branding for Lawyers
▹ Promote & Protect: Social Media Policy 
▹ Content Making & Marketing

🟥   LEARN (ON YOUR OWN)
Private/firm-wide training or coaching on how to establish, build or elevate your online presence & best practices, (or conveniently via my Linked-In Leveraged Lawyers™ course.)         

𝙒𝙃𝙔 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙆 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 𝙈𝙀
By combining a decade of business law + a decade of online business development, I offer a unique perspective on how to efficiently position you & your firm to connect, engage and build trust with your ideal client. I also understand the unique challenges, communication styles and regulatory requirements related to a lawyer's online activity.

❝ HessConnect understands online media for the legal industry! Law firms resist change in the technological arena. Viveca’s creative, nuanced know-how along with her legal background is critical for business growth. ~ Heidi Weaver, Esq. 

❝ With a wealth of marketing knowledge, Viveca sincerely cares about everyone who works with her. The value Viveca places on building relationships reflects the high quality of her work, making her a person you want on your team. ~ Evan Dwin, Esq. 

🟥   𝙇𝙀𝙏'𝙎 𝙏𝘼𝙇𝙆
619.962.5504 / viveca@hessconnect.com / connect on LinkedIn 
Explore Call ➤ https://calendly.com/hessconnect/15min-1


_____


I do not signify any affiliation with or endorsement by LinkedIn®️ Corporation or its affiliates.

Viveca Hess, J.D.

Former lawyer leveraging LinkedIn™ for lawyers to gain quality referral relations and connect with qualified clients efficiently ~ (when I’m not ocean swimming).

Friday confession:
I miss my daughter.

She’s off at college, out there living her best life… while I’m at home doing very normal, very sane things like:

• pausing mid-sentence because I 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 I heard her laugh in the hallway
• scrolling through old photos like I’m an unpaid archivist for The Museum of Our Family
• buying her favorite snacks “just in case she stops by” (she lives 300 miles away, but sure, Viveca)
  
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
And yes. Absolutely.

But can we also acknowledge it makes the brain grow…slightly unhinged? (Just me?!)
Because the missing is weirdly specific.

I don’t just miss “my daughter.”
I miss:

• the random drive-by commentary from the other room (“That’s a choice.”)
• the kitchen pop-ins that start with “I’m starving” and end with me losing half my lunch
• the way she can roast me with one sentence and somehow still be adorable doing it
• the noise. The mess. The 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.
  
Now the house is calmer. Peaceful. Mature.
And honestly…suspicious.

Like…why is it so quiet? Who approved this? Where’s the background sass?

Here’s the part no one tells you:
Missing your kid isn’t only sad.

It’s also kind of hilarious - because you start realizing how much of the joy was in the tiny, ordinary stuff you didn’t think you’d miss.

So yes - my heart is fonder.
But my fridge is also fuller (for no reason).
And my phone storage is at 2% because apparently I’ve decided to become the CEO of “Rewatching My Own Parenting Highlights.”

Your turn:
👉 What’s one oddly specific thing you miss when someone you love isn’t around?

And, happy Friday! 🤩

Thursday night. Good food. Loud restaurant. One friend I hadn’t seen in over a year.
 
You know the kind of dinner where the first 10 minutes are catch-up logistics…
And then suddenly the real question lands.
 
“So,” she said, leaning in,  “what are you actually focused on now, in 2026?”
 
Not 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮.  Not 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳.  Not the tidy version.
 
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙣𝙚.
 
I laughed, because yes, like most humans with a calendar and a pulse, I’ve done a little navel-gazing lately. Looking back. Looking ahead. Trying to name the thing beneath the thing.
 
And here’s what surprised me:
 
The answer wasn’t LinkedIn.
 
LinkedIn is the channel. The vehicle. 🚗 The microphone. 🎤
 
What I actually do is quieter - and bigger.
 
I help people make sense of their story. 
➛ Your unique message. 
➛ Your positioning. 
➛ Your authority.
 
The 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 version finally matching the 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 version everyone already trusts, refers, and wants in the room.
 
My sweet spot?  Digging into what sets you apart when you’ve been too close to see it.
 
The career twists. The lived experience. The judgment calls you’ve made a hundred times that others still struggle with. The thing you assume is “obvious” because it’s 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.
 
I’ve spent a decade building tools, asking better questions, and having thousands of conversations to surface that.  Then position it - clearly, honestly, and without the cringe.
 
So I told her, simply:
 
“I discover, resurface, and position who you are, what you do, and why you do it.”
 
Because when people have choices - and they always do - they choose professionals they trust and connect with. And, I hope, make them laugh (or at least smile) - another content pillar of mine! 
 
And here’s the part I didn’t expect to say out loud, but felt true as soon as I did:
 
This year, I want more real life. 
More rooms. 
More stages, of any size. 
More conversations that don’t start with a profile view.
 
Still strategy. Still clarity. Still visibility.
 
Just with more eye contact.
 
If you know of places, teams, events, or conversations where this kind of work belongs 
- in person - I’d genuinely love to hear about them. 
 
And I’m curious for you, too:
 
When someone asks what you 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 do…𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙟𝙤𝙗 𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙚?

Rehabilitated Lawyer

Director

Novcon

Compliance is an integral part of doing ethical business – not just a box to tick. But often when a lawyer is asked to give advice on compliance they will produce a convoluted document detailing all the problems a particular piece of legislation cause – without providing advice on potential solutions.

It was time for a new approach. At Novation, we believe that compliance can change minds. Increase sales. Reduce complaints. Add value. We can help you do things right and grow your business. We try to think more like entrepreneurs and less like lawyers. What we do is not about paying lip service to compliance but marrying it with good and ethical business practices.

Simply put: compliance is a gain. Not a pain. Work with us and you’ll see why.

Novation Consulting was founded by Elizabeth de Stadler and Paul Esselaar in 2013. Under the brand of Esselaar Attorneys, we’ve been providing law services since 2011 but felt the need to create a new company that could turn compliance on its head, shake the nonsense out of its pockets and present it in a fresh and exciting way.

Founding Director

Hey Plain Jane

Hey Plain Jane is an information design agency that helps companies achieve clarity in their communication. We create clear, innovative, and beautiful forms, terms and conditions, and policies to help these companies build trust and communicate with empathy.

What many companies see as an exercise in compliance is really an investment in the success of their business. Clear communication has the power to improve operations, enhance marketing, reduce customer complaints, and mitigate legal risk. Our founders are crusaders for clarity on every level.

The company was started in 2017 by Novation Consulting and Liezl van Zyl. We’re headquartered in Stellenbosch with an office in Cape Town’s foreshore. Hey Plain Jane has clients in financial services, artificial intelligence, higher education, and retail. We work with best in class designers, animators, and copy writers to simplify technical communication.

Esselaar Attorneys

Her practice comprises of general regulatory compliance due diligences; training and workshops on regulatory compliance; opinion work on the Consumer Protection Act (the CPA), the National Credit Act, the Protection of Personal Information Bill, Banking Law, Insurance, Medical Law, Marketing Law, Contract Law; and plain language drafting.

She conducts regular workshops and training sessions on the CPA and other consumer legislation for businesses and for Law@work, a unit situated within the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town.

In addition writing her dissertation (The consumer’s right to quality goods: a comparative analysis of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008) she is the co-author of a consumer law textbook and a guide on plain language legal drafting which is to be published by Juta Publishing. She is the editor of the Consumer Law Review, which provides a montly update on consumer law related matters. A free subscription is available through www.jutalaw.co.za.

Senior Associate

University of Cape Town

Teaching and research assistant in Contract Law and Comparative Legal History.

Teaching and research assistant

Webber Wentzel

She was employed as an associate in the practice of Daniel le Roux and Lisa Swaine in the Insurance and Legal Liability Practice Group.  Their practice consists of general Commercial litigation, Insurance law and Insurance litigation.

She was exposed to litigation both in the High Court of South Africa as well as the Magistrates' Courts.
During this time the third draft of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 was published.  She conducted an overview of the Act and wrote several opinions for companies in various industries and the Law Society of the Northern Provinces on the impact of the Bill in general with particular emphasis on the impact of the Act on their terms and conditions and exclusions of liability.  

She conducted several internal training sessions on the Act as well as a series of talks to clients of the Webber Wentzel. She was also invited to do workshops at the Chamber of Business, the National Housing Loan Fund and the Law Society of the Northern Provinces.

Candidate Attorney and Associate

Rehabilitated lawyer, #funlawyer, legal designer, plain language fanatic, (retired) amateur skateboarder, humour researcher, (un)professional speaker, knows a little about privacy law, etm.

I call myself a rehabilitated lawyer™.  I have been a litigator, a corporate lawyer, and a privacy and data protection specialist. Now I am a #legaldesigner, a #professionalspeaker, a #plainlanguage fanatic and at parties I tell people I am a cattle inseminator so they don't tell me about their forking divorces. 

Wanna work with me? 

Here is what I do:
🤓 I use #legaldesign and #plainlanguage to create #legal documents that people actually want to read. I have done this with terms & conditions, commercial #contracts, insurance policies, #privacy notices, terms on application forms... if it is legal, I design it.
🙃 I 'rehabilitate' #lawyers and #complianceofficers by doing pep talks and workshops on soft skills like #communication, effective #riskmanagement, #changemanagement magic, and how to look after yourself with #funlaw. Yes, having #fun and using #humour at work is a skill!
😎 I ❤️ #compliance. I help organisations to understand their compliance obligations and identify, plan and implement the changes they need to make to meet them!
🦕 Writing #policies is my jam! On any topic; the harder and more boring the better. I find ways to make sure that people (want to) read them, because if it is not read, it is dead!
✏️ I am a pretty motivational #speaker and a bit of a legal stand-up #comedian. I have done keynotes and training on #legaldesign, rehabilitating #lawyers and #complianceofficers, #funlaw, effective #compliance, #legalwriting, #plainlanguage, #behaviouraleconomics, #changemanagement, #privacy and #dataprotection, #ethics...I love the challenge of making any topic interesting!
🤬...and yes, I can help organisations with #privacy compliance. I wrote a book about South Africa's #POPIA with my work wives. Why the swearing? I have a little bit of #POPIA fatigue, but I will get over it.

If you need help with any of these things and feel like having some fun, send me an email at elizabeth@novcon.co.za! Let's chat!

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