Abbreviated Biography – Acting Justice Opperman J

Judge Ingrid Opperman qualified in 1988 with a B.Com LLB from the University of Johannesburg. From 1985 to 1986 she was the chairwoman of the UJ Law Society.

She spent a year after she qualified as a public prosecutor and then in 1990, commenced pupillage at the Johannesburg Society of Advocates.

The early days of her practice were dedicated mainly to criminal defence work for members of communities in the Northern Cape engaged in resistance to the apartheid state. She worked on defending those accused of public violence, intimidation and related charges. They arose from the efforts of those communities to resist the structures of the apartheid state in its dying days. She also did work in Western Gauteng, primarily in Carletonville, representing in inquests, families who had lost children in police custody. During this time she was a member of Lawyers for Human Rights.

During 1994 her practice shifted to mainly general commercial law with a fair amount of asset-finance based litigation for banks.

She married Les Morison, now an SC, and they have two daughters. Senior counsel status was conferred upon her on 16 September 2014 whereafter, as is the tradition at the bar, she started taking acting appointments. She came to appreciate the challenges and rewards of judicial office in that time and decided to avail herself for appointment as a permanent judge of the High Court of South Africa and was appointed as such during January 2017. She sees judicial office as an opportunity to serve her country and in particular, to apply the law to address injustices both past and present.