I almost didn't finish my law studies. While my friends were applying to the big firms, I was wondering if the law offered anything beyond wealth, power and status. I took a year off and started volunteering at a community legal centre. I saw something new: lawyers giving up their time to assist people who had nowhere else to turn. Social justice in action.

Re-inspired, I completed my studies, focusing especially on human rights law. I read about Mahatma Gandhi and his work restoring the rights of Indians in India, and Nelson Mandela fighting for the rights of Africans in South Africa. I followed the incredible changes happening in South Africa, the dismantling of the racist Apartheid system, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, the drafting of a constitution based on freedom and equality. I hoped and dreamed of working as a lawyer in South Africa, gaining first-hand experience in the country's human rights system.

The Legal Resources Centre has fought for the rights of ordinary South Africans for thirty years. The LRC has represented clients in many of the important decisions of the Constitutional Court regarding the interpretation of the Bill of Rights. While interning in the Constitutional Litigation Unit in the Johannesburg office in early 2009, I was involved in a wide range of cases, including children's rights, women's rights, equality and international law.

I drafted a settlement agreement in a dispute over the custody of two minor children whose parents had both died of HIV/AIDS. I drafted a major submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on behalf of the LRC. In a matter involving the threatened eviction of hundreds of people from an informal settlement, I assisted in taking statements from our clients through an interpreter.

Refugee issues were a major part of the LRC's work during this time. I accompanied other LRC solicitors to Lindela, one of the main immigration detention centres in South Africa, to interview asylum seekers from other African countries. Many had been held longer than the legislation appeared to permit. The LRC acted for a church based in the central business district of Johannesburg which provided refuge for thousands of people each night. Local traders lodged an urgent application to evict the refugees. I assisted in negotiations which allowed the refugees to stay in the church until more permanent accommodation was found.

Completing an internship with the LRC is an incredible opportunity for anyone interested in seeing how human rights work in practice. The people I worked with were passionate and highly skilled. They were also very generous in sharing their experience and knowledge of law and practice. It will take years to assimilate all I have learnt and experienced in three short months at the LRC in Johannesburg.

- By Bill Swannie (April 2009)