Recently-admitted legal practitioner Charliano Scheepers is ready to make his mark and presence felt in the tough-as-nails legal fraternity.
He is not here to make up the numbers. He is in it to leave an indelible mark.
Currently employed at Brockerhoff and Associates Inc [trading as Dentons Brockerhoff] as an associate attorney, Scheepers describes his way into the legal world as the result of a very traumatic shooting incident.
“In 2014, on 24 October, tragedy struck as I was struck by a rogue bullet in my leg, sustaining a life-threatening injury. This injury altered my life trajectory from medicine into law, with the aspiration to enforce and uphold medical law in Namibia,” he states.
Early years
Scheepers was born in Windhoek on 16 May 1997, and grew up with his grandparents on a small communal farm some 20 km outside Rehoboth until the tender age of five.
“When my grandmother passed on, I moved to Windhoek with my mother in 2002. I started my pre-primary school in Windhoek in 2003 at Blink Ogies pre-primary school. In 2004, I started my primary schooling at Gammams Primary School. In 2006, we moved to Rehoboth, where I attended St. Joseph’s Primary School, completing grades 3 and 4 at JTL Beukes Primary School, respectively. I returned to Gammams Primary School in 2008, starting in Grade 5, and completed my primary school tenure at Gammas in 2010 as head boy.”
He matriculated from Jan Möhr Secondary School in 2015 as part of the Students’ Representative Council.
“I started my varsity career in 2016 at the University of Namibia under the LLB (Honours) programme. I graduated in 2019, and received my honours degree from the Congress of April 2020,” Scheepers says
In 2021, he started his JTC training, and passed the theocratic aspect of the JTC training programme, passing his LPQE in one attempt at the end of that year.
He started his practical training as a candidate legal practitioner at Dentons Brockerhoff, one of the fastest-growing local law firms, and was successfully admitted as a legal practitioner by the High Court of the Republic of Namibia on 9 December 2022.
Role model
He says he has admired lawyer Trevor Brockerhoff since his secondary school career while still unsure whether to pursue law or medicine.
Brockerhoff would later inspire him to become a litigant, and not just a corporate legal practitioner after a discussion in 2016.
“His career path similarly demonstrated that although the odds might seem stacked against you, it is possible. His landmark cases in the High Court and Supreme Court of Namibia (i.e., S v. Gaingob and Others (SA 7 of 2008) [2018] NASC 4 (6 February 2018)) only further fuelled my own passion and drive to become a legal practitioner,” Scheepers adds.
Furthermore, it was during 2018 that he had already decided that he would strive to become a candidate legal practitioner at Dentons Brockerhoff. He has not had an unpleasant encounter with a single prosecutor to date because, at the end of the day, they are all servants of justice, each owing allegiance to the Court first and foremost.
“I have only have the utmost regard and respect for colleges I have encountered from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Namibia,” Scheepers continues.
Baptism of fire
He went on to say the toughest case he has had to date is the matter of Babi v State, an appeal where the appellant entered pleas of guilty, and the court accepted the pleas. However, in the end he got the best possible result for the client, which was to successfully appeal against his sentence.
He describes retired Judge Christi Liebenberg as the toughest judge to face. However, Scheepers says Liebenberg is one of the best criminal justices “we have ever had in the Republic of Namibia.”
Scheepers mentioned that Justice Mainga of the Supreme Court, however, is one of the toughest presiding officers he has come across, although he has not appeared before him in person. “I have witnessed his tenacity and vigour for the law first-hand,” he says.
Advice
His advice to anyone aspiring to enter the legal terrain is quite simple: “Law is omnipresent in everything we do daily. The law is not stagnant, but is ever-evolving. It is a noble career. However, it will require hard work, long hours of dedication, and, at times sweat and tears, but, in the end, it will all be worth it when you attain change through the law, be it one person’s life or the entire legal landscape that affects each person in the Republic of Namibia. Law will teach that the word impossible does not exist, but rather that what is possible is what truly exists.”
He continues: “The legal fraternity is the foundation and building block for civilisation.”