He takes over from William Kerfoot who has been the Acting Director, following the death of Kobus Pienaar in February 2011.

Magardie is a graduate of the University of Natal and was admitted as an attorney in January 2000. He first joined the LRC in 2002 after working as a legal counsellor at one of the first refugee forums established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in South Africa. Magardie was based at the LRC office in Durban and Johannesburg between 2002 and 2006.

During this time he litigated a number of precedent setting cases in the High Court and Constitutional Court on matters involving refugee rights, urban housing evictions and the rights of farm dwellers. In December 2006 he joined the firm Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Attorneys as a senior associate. He was appointed as a director of the firm in December 2007.

As a director of Cheadle Thompson & Haysom, Magardie's practice focused primarily on public sector procurement law, constitutional and administrative law, regulatory compliance and litigation arising in these areas. He was a part-time lecturer on administrative law for a social assistance management course at the University of Johannesburg and co-authored two publications by Juta on land tenure law and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act.

Magardie returned to the public interest law sector in March 2010 after being appointed to head the operations of Lawyers for Human Rights in the Western and Northern Cape.

The LRC warmly welcomes Magardie to his new post.