3 July 2024 marked 40 years since the High Court in Pretoria, the then Transvaal Provincial Division, admitted me as an advocate. In 1984 the RAU Law Clinic (now UJ) required an admitted practitioner to assist at one of the law clinics on a part- time basis. I fit the bill as I had been one of its law clinic students two years before and preferred having flexi- time, looking after our first born.
So, my career started as a clinician and academic, whilst being allowed to take on private work. In 1990 I became the director of the RAU Law Clinic until 2007 when I resigned to accompany my husband to the USA.
Both my contributions and functions at the university were diverse in nature, duration and exposure. Apart from running different law clinic offices at different times; teaching law of civil procedure; being responsible for designing both the practical” “and theoretical components of the final year LLB subject, Applied Legal Studies; and overseeing four law clinic offices
with their staff and students, I had to raise funds. Together with two of my clinic colleagues and one secretary, we designed a handsome lucrative two-year paralegal diploma in 2000, which is still ongoing. Besides my academic role as senior lecturer and obtaining the LLM degree in 1995, I had many responsibilities as a director and participated often in high level managerial planning at the university.
Upon our return from the USA in 2009, I gave training at the Johannesburg Bar; LEAD; different law firms; and to SASSETA paralegals, whilst practising in family law and mental health law. Upon securing permanent residence in Canada, I completed the Canadian LLB 2016. I volunteered my services to ProBono.Org in 2012 and, until the end of 2018, ran the Johannesburg divorce help desk once a week with students enrolled at LEAD. Since 2012 I was involved at various help desks of ProBono.Org and in June 2016 ProBono.Org appointed me as a legal consultant on its children’s project.
When looking back over one’s career, one does realise what and who shaped it. Apart from my Christian upbringing, two communities played a central role: the diverse rural highveld communities in the then Eastern Transvaal – Breyten, Carolina and Ermelo – and the urban Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg. Principles of hard work, honesty, ambition, life-long learning and good citizenship were central to all.
School and university mottos like “Werk en dien” (work and serve); “Non veribus sed vertute” (not by strength but by virtue), and “Diens deur kennis” (service through knowledge) imprinted the principle of service to others and the wider community. Upon taking the oath as counsel in 1984, the notion of justice became the benchmark in fulfilment of duty and influenced the exercise of choice in my personal and professional life.
Human rights took on a new meaning when the Constitution came into effect, highlighting the vulnerability of the poor, the marginalised and the children, and the responsibility on us as legal practitioners. “Pro bono for all” presented its own challenges, often being a changing, slippery notion, stingy in presenting a successful remedy for each client.
Such is legal practice – hard, tough, soul- wrenching, but also highly rewarding and often humbling. As a first-year law student in 1978 I wrote to my parents: “ius est ars boni et aequi” and today I confirm that to me the law is still the art of goodness and fairness.
I am grateful for a blessed legal career and thank everyone whose path I have crossed over the years.
