Lawyer as a law unto himself

Nelson Mandela was many things to many people. Leader, icon, father and hero are some of these. But as a lawyer, for his clients he played the role of psychologist, friend and often saviour from the worst possible punishment.

Through his dogged persistence and "unorthodox tactics", he saved many from the wrath of an immoral legal system. As both an accused and as a defender of others' rights, the law was a constant in Mandela's life. It was the gateway to his political home, the ANC, and it was his work that sparked his relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

It was on his path to becoming a lawyer that he met legal heavyweights Joe Slovo and Ruth First, and began lifelong friendships with George Bizos, Braam Fischer and law firm assistant Gaur Radebe, who piqued his interest in politics and took him to ANC meetings.

With Oliver Tambo, Mandela started South Africa's first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo, a legal refuge at a time when apartheid had a firm grip.

Hours after his death on Thursday, the legal fraternity mourned the loss of one of its "greatest moral compasses".

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela revealed how he viewed becoming a lawyer as a calling: "I realised quickly what Mandela and Tambo meant to ordinary Africans. It was a place where they could come and find a sympathetic ear and a competent ally, a place where they would not be turned away or cheated, a place where they might actually feel proud to be represented by men of their own skin colour. This was the reason I had become a lawyer in the first place, and my work often made me feel I had made the right decision."

Mandela was often in court, where he occasionally revealed his sense of humour: "As an attorney, I could be rather flamboyant in court. I did not act as a black man in a white man's court, but as if everyone else - white and black - was a guest in my court.

"When presenting a case, I often made sweeping gestures and used high-flown language. I was punctilious about all court regulations, but I sometimes used unorthodox tactics with witnesses."

In a case in which he acted for a domestic worker accused of stealing her boss's clothes, he placed a pair of ladies' panties on the end of his pencil.

Brandishing the underwear, he asked the boss whether they belonged to her, which she quickly denied, "too embarrassed to admit that they were".

But, as much as law was a calling, Mandela struggled to become - and remain - a lawyer. As a self-described "dismal" law student, it took him many years and several attempts to pass his exams. This achievement was almost ruined by several attempts to have him debarred for his political activities.

"Working as a lawyer in South Africa meant operating under a debased system of justice, a code of law that did not enshrine equality, but its opposite," he said of this time.

But Mandela remained undeterred and continued to practise law, even at times unofficially - including when on trial for high treason and while serving a life sentence on Robben Island, even when his "clients" couldn't pay for his services.