I am Zahraa Motani, a second year Candidate Attorney at the Legal Resources Centre. My journey as a candidate began in January of 2024.
The LRC has a relationship with Bowmans where I had the opportunity to attend their Practical Legal Training (PLT) lectures for the month of January. This opportunity is a massive privilege as I was lectured by leaders in the respective legal fields such as court practice, administration of estates, legal bookkeeping and others. This placed me at an advantage for the competency based exams (CBE) as the lectures were practical and effective. The Bowmans experience also broadened my budding professional network. I networked with other young professionals as well as experts in the field. The Bowmans experience is unique as instead of attending lectures after business hours, I was able to spend one month doing the bulk of the work. This allowed me to fully focus on one major task at a time. Once the January set of lectures was completed, I could fully immerse myself in the LRC.
Within the LRC, the CA programme is unlike any commercial practice. We are not confined to a single focus area, project or case for any period of time nor are we confined to work within our own offices. I have worked across the Land, Education, Democratizing Big Tech and Gender Based violence teams. This has taught me how to work on multiple matters simultaneously while prioritizing work that was emergent. Furthermore, I have worked closely with the programme leads, experts in their respective fields. I got deeply involved with cases and clients beyond that which is the norm in the ordinary CA experience. My knowledge grew from the experiences of seasoned attorneys and their guidance from legal drafting to client consults to strategizing on litigation or advocacy and everything in between. I was welcomed to the strategic table and was allowed to voice my opinion and was often encouraged to do so.
The law clinic experience is different from that of a commercial experience. As a CA, I was not constricted to purely litigious work. The secondary arm of the LRC is advocacy, a practice that capacitates and uplifts communities. I have worked with communities in informal settlements, learning about their lived experiences and allowing their stories to shape our litigation. This exposed me to the crux of public interest lawyering, strategizing impact litigation and extrapolating one community’s lived experiences to countless across the country. The power of one claimant to change a million lives became real to me, not just a motto or slogan but truly what the LRC seeks to do through its work. However, our work doesn’t end with the court order, we often monitor the implementation of judgments and the progressive realization of rights.
One of the most meaningful areas of our work is education rights. I have travelled across the country, hosting activations with learners and educators alike on learners’ rights and how to safeguard them. Being approached by learners who want to become ‘a lawyer like me’ was an incredible experience. It made me realize how much we mean to people. I often take it for granted that I am living the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of my legal journey and being surrounded by young, vibrant minds reminds me of how important Candidate Attorneys are.
The Candidate Attorney experience at the LRC goes beyond training, learning and passing board exams, it teaches you how to be a public interest lawyer in your own right and how your knowledge and experience can positively impact marginalized groups.
So if you are looking for more than just legal training, if you want to use the law to serve communities, challenge injustice and grow into a lawyer who makes a real impact, then the LRC is the place for you. I encourage you to apply and begin your own journey in public interest law. Apply here:
