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23 September 2022 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 7995 / Categories: Features , Profession , Human rights , International justice
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Book review: The Mandela Brief

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"One feels that one is experiencing some of the horror of living under an evil regime and what it takes to oppose such a regime as a lawyer."
  • Author: Thomas Grant KC
  • Publisher: John Murray Press
  • ISBN: 9781529372861
  • RRP: £25

Most conscious lawyers will know of Sir Sydney Kentridge SC KC—doyen of the South African and the English Bar, widely regarded as the greatest advocate of our time, now approaching his hundredth birthday. Many will know that he played an important role in the battles against the South African apartheid regime and that he represented Nelson Mandela in the famous Treason Trial. But few will know much, if anything, about the detailed history of those battles. Thomas Grant KC has performed a real service by enabling us to get a vivid sense of some of Kentridge’s most important cases, including riveting passages of verbatim extracts from transcripts. We get to see a great lawyer at work in deeply troubling times.

After 20 pages about Kentridge’s

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