Law students in action
UJ LAW CLINIC: Celebrating 40 years of impact
This year, we are delighted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Law Clinic, University of Johannesburg. It is an incredible milestone in the community outreach work the Law Clinic provides and the work-integrated learning it provides to our final year students.
UJ opened another clinic on campus in 1983 and one in Roodepoort, which operated
from 1984 to 1989. As the course became compulsory for all final year LLB students since 1983, the number of students working in the Clinics as well as the number of clients increased. The number of clients in 1983 doubled since the inception of the Clinic. Adv. Gert Joubert was in charge of the Clinics from 1983 to 1985 and was assisted by Adv. Linda Pienaar and Mrs. Alice Gerber as secretary from 1984. Adv. Elsabé Steenhuisen was appointed to the Roodepoort Law Clinic from 1984. They all worked on an ad hoc basis. In the 1980’s the clinics also used colleagues as supervisors (such as Prof. Wouter de Vos) and legal practitioners on a part-time basis to assist with court work (such as Willem Stapelberg and Johan Smit, both alumni of the Faculty).
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) Law Clinic formally opened its doors to the public in February 1981 with 18 students. Prof. JC van der Walt (former Dean of the Faculty of Law and former rector of the university), Judge Frans Malan (then Professor in Law at the Faculty), and Prof. Schalk van der Merwe (then Professor in Law at the Faculty and as Dean, the first director of the Clinic) were the founders of the UJ Law Clinic. Merwe and Wouter de Vos, respectively Deputy Director:
criminal law and Deputy Director: civil law. The first clinics were situated at Westbury and Hoek Street in the Johannesburg city center. The Hoek Street Clinic (in co-operation with Wits Law Clinic) had fewer students, but they were busier than the Westbury Clinic. The clinical work was initially a credit course for the subject Practical Legal Training at UJ (known as Applied Legal Studies or ALS from the mid 90’s). The course was optional until 1983.
13
ALUMNI IMPUMELELO
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker