Musings from our 2026 fellows about the first year of practice
Merle Naidoo
First year of practice…….
Since my transition from attorney to advocate in February this year, the experience has been both exacting and unexpectedly transformative.
After more than two decades in practice, I was accustomed to operating within structured environments, often with layers of accountability and oversight.
The move to the Bar has required a fundamental shift—not only in the nature of the work, but in how one carries it. For the first time in my career, I am solely responsible for the positions I advance, the arguments I shape, and the standard to which they are held.
During pupillage, I was asked a deceptively simple question: what do advocates do? My response then was that we share responsibility for maintaining the minimum standard at which society operates. Having now stepped into practice, that answer has taken on a far sharper meaning. The realisation that the “buck stops” with counsel in the conduct of litigation is both sobering and deeply energising.
The learning curve has been steep, extending well beyond the technical. Advocacy demands restraint, clarity, and a willingness to stand behind one’s reasoning with conviction—sometimes in circumstances where certainty is elusive. It is also a discipline that is inherently humbling: no matter one’s prior experience, each brief requires you to engage afresh, to question assumptions, and to remain open to being wrong. It is a profession that compels continuous learning.
What has made this transition both possible and meaningful is the community around me. The support of peers—many of whom have become trusted friends—has provided not only camaraderie, but a shared sense of navigating unfamiliar terrain. Equally, the generosity of senior practitioners, in both guidance and example, has created a space in which one can learn, question, and refine without reservation.
Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, I find myself stretched in ways I had not anticipated. It is in that stretch that a quiet certainty has emerged: that this is where I am meant to be, and that the work of advocacy, at its best, is not only about legal argument, but about contributing—however incrementally—to the standards by which society is held together.
Mbali Mkhie
Joining an honourable profession
I feel deeply grateful to the men and women who continuously give selflessly to the profession, It is a highly demanding field, yet they still devote many hours to growing the profession by assisting with pupilage, advocacy training as well as mentorship without compensation.
I joined the legal profession later than what is conventional, having spent 18years in the public service. I suddenly felt stuck and experienced a desperate need to fulfil a purpose but I never anticipated the work that goes into it.
I resigned from a permanent and stable job to pursue the dream of opening a private practice as an Advocate, a dream that kept me passionate, motivated, and moving throughout a journey I would describe as hard, full of uncertainty and marked by some low moment.
After Pupilage, the successful completion of board exams and court shadowing, a step that felt exciting, affirming, and slightly surreal, Admission followed, bringing that special moment to begin practice.
It is in that moment that you realise the journey has not ended but has just began. Yet, you also quickly realise that you are not alone, you have become a member of an honourable profession, where people sacrifice their time and invest in others.
In my first year of practice, I can say that I am still finding my way. I have been working intentionally on achieving balance, and while i have notperfected it, I am definitely making progress. The honourable men and women of this profession continue to play a meaningful role, engaging, guiding, trusting and believing in others and in doing so, helping them build their practices.