When we were pursuing our Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees at the various law schools, we often heard that serving articles was only about pagination and serving and filing of court documents. We were not looking forward to these tasks as they sounded dauntingly uninteresting. However, when we started serving articles at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) we were proven wrong. Unknown to us, serious responsibilities and interesting duties in public interest law awaited us.

Within days of being at the LRC, under supervision of our principles, we conducted consultations with walk-in clients who sought legal assistance on different areas of law. Not all of the walk-in clients’ cases involved litigation. Sometimes, telephone calls or letters resolved the matter. Those that could not be simply resolved, while having merit, were taken up for litigation. On such cases, we worked as part of a team, which may be constituted of paralegals, candidate attorneys, attorneys and counsel. We took statements, drafted initial pleadings and conducted further consultations with clients where necessary. Some of the clients we consulted lived hundreds of kilometers away from the LRC’s office in Johannesburg. That involved a lot of traveling and hard work. We also attended consultations with counsel, pre-trial conferences, took part in preparing for the hearing of a case and ultimately attended the court proceedings. The cases we took up were heard in various fora such as the Constitutional Court, the High Courts, the Magistrates’ Courts and others.

It is well-known that the LRC is a public interest litigation organization. However, our training has not only been limited to that area of law. The LRC has an ongoing and fruitful relationship with the law firm of Bowman and Gilfillan Attorneys for purposes of training the LRC’s Candidate Attorneys (CAs) in the areas of corporate and commercial law. The LRC’s CAs also have the opportunity to attend courses arranged by the Nelson Mandela Institute at the Witwatersrand University Law School where accredited courses such as Legal Writing and Advanced Constitutional Jurisprudence and Litigation are offered. This is called Winter Law School and is organized by the Mandela Institute with the Seattle University School of Law in the United States. From time to time, we also have the opportunity to assist the attorneys by making submissions to Parliament on legislation and this is an experience that is not commonly available to most CAs.

Due to the nature of our work and the types of clients we assist, we have learned to work under pressure, sometimes individually with little supervision. We feel a great sense of satisfaction because the people we help are underprivileged and cannot afford legal fees, especially those associated with large impact litigation. If it was not for an organization like the LRC, many, if not most, of our clients would not have had access to legal assistance. It is very rewarding to know that we are a part of an organization that since 1979 has used the law as a tool to bring about social, political and to an extent economical change through the types of cases it takes up and its other programs.

In the end, we are glad that the perceptions we initially had about serving articles were proven wrong. We are also aware that what we have learned was possible because of dedication, hard-work, and a commitment to advance human rights in South Africa and Africa.

Co-written by Bongumusa Sibiya, Zeenat Sujee & Kgaogelo Nchaupe, Candidate Attorneys in the Johannesburg LRC Office