An eternal optimist. That’s how I describe myself. Each one of us is born with a unique purpose. A select few are privileged to know what their purpose is in the early stages of their lives; others have to go through a self-searching journey to unearth it.
My dream to be an attorney was not a challenge to overcome but navigating the legal industry space was an evident mission with hurdles to manoeuvre. I knew my unique method of operation, which is driven by prayer and resilience, would carry me through.
The biggest Goliath I faced was imposter syndrome.
Whether you are just getting your career started, establishing yourself in the legal fraternity or are an experienced professional, imposter syndrome has a way of being crippling, especially for women.
When I was admitted into the profession a decade ago, I started to look around, allowing spaces and people to intimidate me, especially on occasions when I would enter the forum and find it full of men.
It was in those moments when I felt nothing I had achieved deserved to be associated with my name. That was until the day I put an expiry date on the negative self-talk that made me a directionless young legal practitioner.
It did not take me long to find myself. I knew then that those around me would see me too. That was when I fostered personal and professional development, developed my social consciousness, created goals and attained critical leadership skills to become the best version of myself in the legal fraternity.
Identifying and reaching out to a mentor will help you achieve your career goals and career aspirations but you also need to commit to honouring your dreams and have courage to defeat that small voice of doubt. Invest in self-development, career development and associate yourself with eagles; you will see positive results.
Fast-forward to where we are today, an era where women are being given opportunities to showcase their capabilities and being empowered in the profession. Today, our courts are full of competent and hard-working female legal practitioners, and I hope the strides made are assisting women experience fewer moments of being attacked by imposter syndrome.
Today, serving as the director of the Limpopo Provincial Council of the Legal Practice Council (LPC), every day’s starting point is: How do I make a difference? How do I give further substance to the gains of our justice and broaden our legal fraternity? How do I deepen social transformation and serve two key stakeholders of the LPC: legal practitioners and members of the public?
Serving legal practitioners means assisting them to meet their objectives and accelerate their performance, thereby helping them solve their challenges. When it comes to members of the public, there’s a need to enhance the education and awareness of LPC’s services.
My biggest goal is to help rehabilitate justness and strong values of integrity among legal practitioners, with the belief this will, ultimately, assist the LPC to raise productivity, enabling it to better respond to emerging ethics challenges, including bogus lawyers who defraud poor people.
In 2023, my office received 1 445 complaints and we finalised more than 1 400 of them in a year, which is a positive sign that we are dealing effectively with the backlog. But I still emphasise the need to come up with programmes that will deal with issues of rules of conduct among legal practitioners.
At the moment, I am dealing with legal practitioners who act as conveyancers and misappropriate funds that belong to members of the public funds, hence I continuously call for long-term programmes that will encourage a value-driven culture among legal practitioners in Limpopo.
While there’s an expectation for members of the public to understand that they must first confirm the status of the legal practitioner with the LPC before entrusting a legal practitioner with funds, including checking if the practitioner has a Fidelity Fund Certificate, I believe hosting seminars for legal practitioners will help provide a career development platform that educates and career guidance, provide a networking platform for practitioners to connect with one another and industry leaders, while yielding great results and change in reducing complaints against practitioners.
For me, being a performing director means exceeding the goals of the organisation, and doing that in such a way that it’s sustainable and building for the future.
As we observe this special month for women, I hope we can all divorce ourselves from imposter syndrome and rightfully live the life for which we are destined.
BIO: Khomotso Matsaung, the LPC Limpopo provincial director