Law students have their own clinic?

Bokang Selepe

The UP Law Clinic is not a special medical clinic created by the university to treat the health of law students. If that were the case, law students would probably be as energetic as the lawyers on Suits and How to Get Away with Murder. Little is known about the Law Clinic amongst the UP student body and especially law students. The UP Law Clinic has two main functions. Firstly, it provides legal services to those who cannot afford the cost of litigation, and secondly, it aims to provide finalyear law students with the necessary practical legal experience before entering the legal world.

As a result of the social and economic divide, The UP Law Clinic aims to address the wider issue of access to justice facing both the South African community and the judicial system at large. PDBY held an interview with the director of the UP Law Clinic, Eddie Hanekom to find out the effectiveness of the UP Law Clinic in the community.

According to the UP Law Clinic’s website, clients must meet four criteria before they can receive assistance. These criteria appear to be further obstacles that prevent access to justice - something which the Law Clinic aims to promote. Hanekom agreed that the client assistance criteria are further barriers to justice, but nevertheless highlighted that the criteria are not implemented by the Law Clinic. They are rather implemented by the Legal Practice Council which governs all law linics across South Africa. Hanekom further emphasised that failure to implement the client assistance criteria would result in a withdrawal of recognition from the Legal Practice Council and, in effect, the shut down of the law clinic.

In relation to the issue of access to justice, the UP Law Clinic deals with only a limited number of legal issues that restrict its client base compared to the large number of issues handled by other top university law clinics such as Wits. In response to this, Hanekom stated that there are certain legal issues that all Law Clinics are prohibited from handling and that the Wits Law Clinic simply operates on a specialised model in comparison to the UP Law Clinics’ general model. Furthermore, Hanekom said that limited funding continues to be the biggest barrier in the effective operation of the Law Clinic because limited funds translate to high contract staff turnover due to low salaries, lack of specialisation in different areas of law and slow advancement of client cases.

Despite the above-mentioned internal and external challenges faced by the UP Law Clinic, Hanekom highlights that the UP Law Clinic’s reputation remains among the best and this is evident in that the law clinic successfully maintained its client basis and continued to render quality legal services, despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hanekom further added that not every case taken by the Law Clinic is a winning case in that the Law Clinic sometimes takes on cases with a low chance of success because the protection of the client’s rights is more important. According to Hanekom, the biggest demonstration of the Law Clinic’s success is the personal expression of gratitude by clients and the number of walk-in clients approaching the Law Clinic in need of legal assistance.

On the educational effectiveness of the UP Law Clinic, PDBY interviewed two final-year LLB students, Zanrie Linstrom and Stephanie Hechter, to find out more about their experience at the Law Clinic. A common theme in any degree is that the gap between the theory and practice is only realised in the workplace. Both Linstrom and Hechter say that their experience at the Law Clinic has given them an advantage over their peers in that they have gained practical legal skills that they would only learn while completing their articles, making them desired candidates for law firms. Furthermore, the UP Law Clinic has helped them understand that the practice of law is more grounded in that it is research and reading intensive in comparison to the common misconception that law is a glamorous career filled with tailored suits, lots of money, and intense arguments. Linstrom and Hechter highlighted that their main take-away from the Law Clinic is their exposure to the South African legal system in a practical way that is filled with a diversity of clients and complex legal issues.

The UP Law Clinic cannot fix all the structural and systemic issues that plague the South African legal system in terms of access to justice, but it does play an essential role in the community in that it bridges the racial and economic inequality gap to ensure all people receive justice when their rights are violated. The UP Law Clinic is also training future lawyers and legal practitioners to be well-rounded individuals that approach legal issues on principles of justice and equality as opposed to money and fame.