Carole Lewis

Carole Hélène Lewis (; born 26 October 1953) is a South African retired judge and legal academic. She served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2003 until her retirement in 2019. Before that, she was a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division. Until her appointment to the bench in November 1999, she was a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she was dean of the School of Law from 1993 to 1998.

Early life and academic career Lewis was born on 26 October 1953 in Johannesburg in the former Transvaal Province. She matriculated at the Hyde Park High School in Hyde Park, Johannesburg. During the final year of her degree, she received the Society of Advocates Prize for winning the moot competition.

After serving her articles of clerkship, Lewis was admitted as an attorney in 1978, but she joined the Wits School of Law as a lecturer later that year.

In addition to her academic work, she was the editor-in-chief of the Annual Survey of SA Law from 1992 to 1999 and general editor of the South African Law Journal in 2000. She was the second woman to be appointed to the appellate court, after Leonora van den Heever. Notable judgments written by Lewis included Ikea Trading und Design v BOE Bank and the judgment that was overturned by the Constitutional Court in S v Thebus.

Retirement Lewis retired in 2019. In May 2023, Stellenbosch University appointed her to chair an inquiry into allegations of nepotism by the university's vice-chancellor, Wim de Villiers.

Personal life She is married to Stephen Lewis and has two children. She joined the Black Sash as a teenager in 1970 and joined Lawyers for Human Rights shortly after it was formed in 1979.