“The driving force in my career is helping people,” says Frik Grobler, Head of the Student Section of the University of Pretoria Law Clinic (UPLC). “I want to help not only UPLC clients with their legal woes, but also the students who are on the cusp of beginning their careers and who are often uncertain about the future. I want to show them, through their practical involvement at the UPLC, that they are ready to enter practice. I also want to be someone who they can talk to about what is going on in their lives.” 

Mentorship is important to Grobler. His decade-long career in law and academia is a reflection of his dedication to legal practice and academic mentorship, and of the mentorship he received as a UP student, which shaped his professional and academic journey and which he is now paying forward.

Grobler holds multiple degrees from UP, including a BCom (Law), an LLB and an LLM in Insolvency Law, which he obtained with distinction in 2024. He is also the module coordinator for the Practical Law 400 elective module. Despite his academic achievements, Grobler's journey into law was not always certain. 

“Because of my uncertainty, my parents took me for comprehensive aptitude tests and it was recommended that I enrol for the three-year BCom (Law) degree, with a specialisation in Financial Management and Accounting, and then to complete the LLB degree (another two years),” he explains. “I followed this path, still not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life. This changed in my final-year of LLB study (2008), when I enrolled for the elective module Practical Law, presented by the UPLC. Like most Practical Law students, I enrolled for the module in order to obtain some practical experience prior to completing my articles of clerkship. However, my experience at the UPLC opened my eyes to a world where you could be both a legal practitioner and a law teacher; where you can mentor final-year LLB students while providing legal aid services to less fortunate members of the community. For the first time in my life, I knew what I wanted to do.”

Grobler joined the UPLC as a candidate attorney in 2009, where he completed his articles of clerkship. By 2010, he was admitted as an attorney and began his journey as a supervising attorney in the Student Section of the clinic. 

“It is extremely rewarding to meet a new crop of students, to get to know the various personalities and to see each student grow through the course of the academic year,” he says. “This means that every year is new, exciting and rewarding even when you teach the same study themes and conduct the same type of cases every year.”

In addition to his academic contributions, Grobler finds great satisfaction in his legal work at the UPLC. 

“Providing legal assistance to the less fortunate is obviously rewarding. Being a legal practitioner is a bit like being a doctor in that you only see your clients when they are at their lowest. At the UPLC, we deal mostly with family law cases such as divorce, parental responsibilities, and rights disputes and domestic violence.

“A lesson I’ve learnt, which has been confirmed many times over in my interactions with my clients who are going through crises, is that no obstacle is too great to overcome if you have faith,” he says, adding that he draws strength from his faith and his parents, whom he credits with supporting him throughout his personal and professional life.
His advice to students who are considering a career in law, particularly in the legal aid sector, is simple: “The legal aid clinic sector is quite niche, with one aspect being academia and the other being practice. For someone interested in becoming a clinician, I would advise enrolling for a practical module at a university law clinic and applying to complete articles there as well. Then study further –  an LLM and LLD cannot hurt.”