by Gabrielle Ritchie

I recently had the remarkable opportunity to sit down with Advocate Gys Hofmeyr SC (LLB Class of 1955) to chat about his professional life. With a career spanning nearly seven decades, Advocate Hofmeyr has not only experienced significant changes in South Africa’s legal dispensation but has also, certainly in the areas of Law of Succession and Admiralty Law, contributed significantly to how the law in these spheres is understood, interpreted and applied.

What emerged in discussion with Hofmeyr is not simply a curriculum vitae. He shared a subtly layered account of how a legal mind is formed - through mentorship, institutional tradition, intellectual curiosity, academic application, and the slow accumulation of expertise across decades. From junior advocate to President of the Cape Bar (“Leader of the Bar”), with intermittent periods as Acting Judge, and driving the establishment of what became UCT’s Shipping Law Unit, as well as producing academic papers and subsequently the go-to reference books on the Law of Succession and Admiralty Law, Hofmeyr has had an extraordinarily impactful career.

Early legal learning at UCT
Hofmeyr’s journey in the law began at the UCT Faculty of Law, where he completed his BA LLB and graduated in 1955. His recollection of the period reflects both admiration and impatience: admiration for the intellectual rigour of Roman Law teaching, and impatience with the number of non-legal subjects in the undergraduate curriculum. He is the first to recognise, though, that it was precisely within this mixed structure that his legal identity began to take shape.

A decisive influence came through Roman Law II, a demanding course that combined Latin translation with doctrinal analysis. Success in this course was the gateway to serious legal study. Failure meant certain exclusion from proceeding any further. Hofmeyr recalls that it was here, under the guidance of lecturers such as D.V. Cowen, that he first experienced law not merely as a body of rules, but as a disciplined intellectual craft. Cowen’s LLB lectures demonstrated the importance of preparation, clarity, considered structure, and persuasive argument - skills that would serve to define Hofmeyr’s advocacy and stood him in good stead when it was his turn to teach.

Being the Judge’s registrar: learning advocacy from the Bench
One of the most formative experiences in Hofmeyr’s early career was his year as a judge’s registrar in the mid-1950s. He served under two senior judges, Ogilvie Thompson and van Winsen. This period, Hofmeyr notes, was a great advantage in shaping his understanding of advocacy at its highest level.

Judge Ogilvie Thompson, in particular, left a deep impression. Hofmeyr recalls going into court with the judge as his registrar, observing proceedings, and then on occasion receiving a post-hearing commentary on the performance of the advocates - what was done well, and what should not have been done. At times he was required by the judge to prepare a memorandum on the legal issues involved, with rigorous feedback by the judge. A particularly enduring aspect was the insistence on thoroughness and an understanding of legal history.

This apprenticeship at the judicial level gave Hofmeyr an unusually early exposure to standards of excellence that would shape his entire career.

Admission to the Bar and early practice
After completing his registrarship, Hofmeyr was admitted to the Bar in the late 1950s, beginning practice around 1957. Like most young advocates of the time, he did not have the luxury of choosing a specialist field. Work came from attorneys, and reputation had to be built on a case-by-case basis, often in unpredictable areas of law. Early practice included appearances in magistrates’ courts and applications in the motion court taking place in the Supreme Court. With regard to the latter, the junior advocates’ mettle was frequently tested by the presiding judge. Hofmeyr recalls the importance of preparation, noting that errors in applications in the motion courts could sometimes become opportunities to demonstrate to the instructing attorney one’s knowledge of the law, understanding of court process, and advocacy skills.

Taking Silk
In 1977, Hofmeyr was appointed senior counsel (he “took silk”), marking a major transition in his professional life. The designation of “silk” signified readiness to lead complex litigation, appear with a junior, and assume leadership responsibility in major cases. Hofmeyr’s application for this senior status was prompted by the Judge President of the time, who signalled that Hofmeyr was ready for senior status. He describes the transition as both an honour and a risk. Senior counsel carried greater professional authority but also greater financial responsibility for clients, who now had to fund both a leader and a junior. Premature application for the status of “silk”, notes Hofmeyr, could damage a career if not supported by sustained attorney confidence.

A decade after taking silk, Hofmeyr was elected President of the Cape Bar Council, and served as such for the year of his appointment. This was an important role requiring extensive collegial recognition and respect. The First National Bar Conference was held in April 1988, during Hofmeyr’s presidency.

Acting judicial experience and institutional perspective
Alongside practice, Hofmeyr periodically served as an acting judge. These appointments offered insight into judicial decision-making and also highlighted generational differences within the bench. In one recollection, Hofmeyr served alongside judges significantly older than himself, reinforcing his sense of being a junior figure within a formal judicial hierarchy. He recalls being present during politically sensitive periods in South Africa’s history, including discussions surrounding high profile events.

Hofmeyr recalls the shockwaves caused by the death of Steve Biko while being detained, and the consistent opposition of the Cape Bar - which was from time to time made known - to the procedure of detention without trial. Moreover, recalls Hofmeyr, these experiences reflected the conflict between the judiciary’s institutional value of neutrality on the one hand, and the responsibility of the courts to comment on the administration of justice on the other hand.

Academic contributions: Maritime Law at UCT
A significant contribution to legal education and testament to Hofmeyr’s Admiralty expertise came through being approached by UCT Law to establish a maritime law course at the University of Cape Town. At the time, structured teaching in maritime law was limited to the then-University of Natal.

Hofmeyr convened a collaborative teaching model involving advocates Farlam and Comrie (who subsequently became judges), as well as leading maritime practitioner attorney John Hare. Rather than teaching the entire course himself, Hofmeyr structured a joint academic-practitioner initiative, reserving the admiralty component for his own instruction. This initiative later contributed to his appointment as an adjunct professor, a title he received with characteristic skepticism about academic nomenclature but which he appreciated as recognition of his expertise.

Succession Law and scholarly collaboration
One of Hofmeyr’s most important scholarly contributions was his role as co-author of The Law of Succession in South Africa. The project evolved over three editions and involved collaboration with leading legal minds, including Michael Corbett, who subsequently became Chief Justice, and Ellison Kahn, a leading academic, among others. The early editions (first edition,1980; second edition, 2003) reflected a hierarchical structure of authorship, with senior jurists handling foundational doctrinal areas such as trusts, vesting, and substitution, while Hofmeyr worked on more limited sections. Over time, however, his role expanded significantly.

By the third edition, published in 2023, the work became a collaboration between Hofmeyr and Professor Mohammed Paleker (now Dean of Law at UCT). The work was updated, revised and expanded. Hofmeyr describes this period as intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding, marked by rigorous exchanges and mutual refinement of ideas between Paleker and himself.

A major theme in this later edition was the impact of constitutional law on succession. The emergence of constitutional principles of equality required courts and practitioners to reassess traditional testamentary freedom. Questions arose about whether and how courts should intervene in wills that reflected unequal distributions and gender disparities among heirs. Hofmeyr’s analysis reflects both respect for constitutional transformation and caution about judicial overreach, particularly where courts might effectively be required to reconstruct wills rather than interpret them.

Admiralty Law: a defining specialisation
One of Hofmeyr’s first academic publications was in the Faculty’s 1982 edition of its journal, Acta Juridica, where he wrote about Admiralty Jurisdiction in South Africa. His opening paragraph deftly captures the spirit of Hofmeyr’s abiding interest in Admiralty:

“The obscure origins and divergent sources of the law of Admiralty have invested this branch of the law with a particular fascination for those with an academic bent and a sense of history. It enjoys, moreover, an aura of romance not often associated with the dry rubric of the law and conjures up visions of piracy, wreck and spoil, of admirals dispensing harsh justice on the high seas and of seamen holding great ships to ransom for unpaid wages.”

Hofmeyr ultimately became most closely associated with this field of law, which he describes as intellectually distinctive and well-suited to research-driven legal reasoning. Admiralty jurisdiction, Hofmeyr notes in our discussion, developed historically as a separate legal system to address the practical needs of maritime commerce, often diverging from domestic legal rules. A central feature of this field is the concept of the action in rem, where the ship itself is treated as the defendant. This legal fiction allows claimants to arrest a vessel in port, ensuring security for maritime claims, necessary because of the complexity of determining a ship’s legal ownership, often obscured through layered corporate structures. Hofmeyr’s admiralty practice extended internationally, involving consultations in London, Greece, Israel, and Rotterdam, as well as appearing in arbitrations in London. Furthermore, Hofmeyr played an important role in the discussions which preceded the promulgation of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act (Act 105 of 1983).

Once again, not limiting his legal contributions simply to the practice of Admiralty Law, Hofmeyr authored the first two editions of Admiralty Jurisdiction Law and Practice in South Africa (first edition, 2006; second edition, 2012), both of which were well received in the profession. Hofmeyr entrusted the third edition to UCT Law alumnus Advocate Darryl Cooke, now an Acting Judge. This latest edition, now titled “Hofmeyr’s Admiralty Law” (published in 2025), embraces much of Hofmeyr’s work in the 2nd edition, while providing important new insights into admiralty law by Advocate Cooke.

A career of continuity and fulfilment
Throughout our chat, Hofmeyr reflected on the unpredictable nature of legal practice. Early career development, he says, depended less on deliberate choice and more on opportunity, reputation, and attorney instruction. Over time, though, Hofmeyr was able to develop identifiable specialisations in succession, medical negligence, intellectual property and, ultimately, admiralty law.

Hofmeyr’s career represents a lifelong engagement with law as a practitioner and academic. From his formative years at UCT in the Class of 1955, through judicial mentorship, senior advocacy, academic authorship, and international maritime practice, his trajectory reflects continuity and commitment.

Advocate Gys Hofmeyr concludes our discussion with a quiet but definitive reflection: given the opportunity to begin again, he would choose the same path. The law, in his account, has been both a profession and a sustained intellectual life marked by rigour, collaboration, and enduring professional relationships.

Hofmeyr is married to Wendy, his wife of 67 years. Wendy completed a BA Law at UCT, and all three of their children are UCT alumni now working variously in the film world.