Attorney honoured for a dedicated practice

LOCAL attorney, Ian van Rooyen was recently honoured with a Life Membership Certificate at the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society AGM held at the Coastlands Hotel in Umhlanga.

The award was in recognition of 50 years of continuous and dedicated practice as an attorney in the industry, where he gave a humorous acceptance speech of how he grew up and his academic career.

“As for my academic career, I can only tell of an incident when my darling wife gave my son, Ian, my original matric certificate in error, thinking it was his. The look in my respectful daughter in law’s eyes when she read it portrayed surprise and exasperation, responding with ‘skoonpa, you got an F for your favourite subject, Geography, and little better for any other subject,” said van Rooyen humorously.

He gave the audience further insight in his years in university while studying towards his BA Law at the University of Stellenbosch. “My philosophy was to complain bitterly if I achieved 53% for a subject when the pass mark was 50%, because I had studied 3% more than necessary,” he said.

After successfully completing his studies, in 1963 bearing the status of qualified attorney and joined his father’s practice called van Rooyen and Forder, a firm that had a 30 year standing then and still respected today.

“I became quite impressive with such matters as stock theft, faction fighting, possession of dagga and golf. As were customary at the time, I was bestowed with the honour of a Zulu name, uMagazine, after the long, old, Lee-Metford 303 rifles used by the British forces during the Boer War.

“That was in recognition for all the noise I made when I appeared in court,” he added. The father of three described his marriage as a good one, however, disputed that his wife might have had a different view.

“In 1964, I married Lynette who gave me two daughters and a son, all of whom do us proud and earn more than their father. As is often the case, marriage was traumatic and very hard to bear, on Lynette, that is, I had a good time. In the pursuit of a career change, he then tried running a business and after a two year stint, losing all his capital, went back to law.

“In 1974, I set up practice as Ian van Rooyen and Co/Kie, ready to take on all opposition. In 1992 after two successful and pleasant partnerships, being totally overworked, I scaled down my practice from about 12 to the present staff of three, two of them having been with me since 1986,” said van Rooyen. And as for the plural, ‘attorneys’ in the name of his firm,

“My only colleague is my mirror, which I consult every morning and we never cross swords, and I know he is always right,” he added. He served on such bodies as The Durban Harbour Advisory Board, The Durban TransportManagement Board, The Durban Publicity Association, The Airport Advisory Committee and the Afrikaanse Sakekamer. Ian van Rooyen Attorneys are based in Malvern Park Mall since 1985.