George Bizos, to the end a warrior for justice and the constitution
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I got to know George Bizos while working at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) for almost a decade from 2008 to 2016.
George himself had joined the LRC in 1991, spending almost three decades at the organisation. I joined the Constitutional Litigation Unit (CLU), where he was also based, as a junior attorney, then became an advocate and left as the unit’s director.
George used to enjoy introducing me to people as his “boss” and observing their bemused reactions. We became close colleagues and friends, within the extended LRC and public-interest community.
Towards the end of George’s LRC years, he was reunited with his dear friend, Arthur Chaskalson, until Arthur passed away in 2012.
George used to enjoy telling the tale of how Arthur more or less tricked George into giving up his private practice and joining the LRC full-time during the constitutional transition. The two were strikingly different personalities, but shared a deep, loving friendship.
For me, they personified the two dimensions of the LRC’s mission — Arthur representing the strategic use of the law to tackle structural injustice, and George the law clinic’s function of providing daily, unglamorous legal support to every person who walked through the door. These two dimensions made the LRC one of the world’s leading public-interest law centres, and epitomised these two great friends.
Throughout his time at the LRC, George drew a modest salary, probably less than a tenth of what he would have earned in private practice. Indeed, George was appalled to hear what many advocates and attorneys in private practice charge and earn.
Arthur would spend one day a week at the LRC after his retirement as chief justice. On those days, George and Arthur would take the junior LRC advocates out to lunch at George’s beloved Café Boccaccio in downtown Johannesburg.
George would share Greek greetings with Vaitsa and Archie, who ran Boccaccio, and exchange gardening advice. During lunch, George and Arthur would share stories from the past, and grapple with the current challenges facing SA.
The walks to and from lunch always took about twice as long as they should, because we would be stopped several times by people who knew George. They would remind him that he had represented them or a family member during a political trial under apartheid. The memory would flash back to him, and he would share some detail of the case, and take ...
George himself had joined the LRC in 1991, spending almost three decades at the organisation. I joined the Constitutional Litigation Unit (CLU), where he was also based, as a junior attorney, then became an advocate and left as the unit’s director.
George used to enjoy introducing me to people as his “boss” and observing their bemused reactions. We became close colleagues and friends, within the extended LRC and public-interest community.
Towards the end of George’s LRC years, he was reunited with his dear friend, Arthur Chaskalson, until Arthur passed away in 2012.
George used to enjoy telling the tale of how Arthur more or less tricked George into giving up his private practice and joining the LRC full-time during the constitutional transition. The two were strikingly different personalities, but shared a deep, loving friendship.
For me, they personified the two dimensions of the LRC’s mission — Arthur representing the strategic use of the law to tackle structural injustice, and George the law clinic’s function of providing daily, unglamorous legal support to every person who walked through the door. These two dimensions made the LRC one of the world’s leading public-interest law centres, and epitomised these two great friends.
Throughout his time at the LRC, George drew a modest salary, probably less than a tenth of what he would have earned in private practice. Indeed, George was appalled to hear what many advocates and attorneys in private practice charge and earn.
Arthur would spend one day a week at the LRC after his retirement as chief justice. On those days, George and Arthur would take the junior LRC advocates out to lunch at George’s beloved Café Boccaccio in downtown Johannesburg.
George would share Greek greetings with Vaitsa and Archie, who ran Boccaccio, and exchange gardening advice. During lunch, George and Arthur would share stories from the past, and grapple with the current challenges facing SA.
The walks to and from lunch always took about twice as long as they should, because we would be stopped several times by people who knew George. They would remind him that he had represented them or a family member during a political trial under apartheid. The memory would flash back to him, and he would share some detail of the case, and take ...