From Activist to Chairman Activist: Noor Kapdi on a Meaningful Legal Career

^{You’ve been told to plan your path. Pick a firm. Choose a niche. Get ahead.}

^{But what if the most important part of your legal career isn’t the path at all?}

^{What if it’s your purpose?}

^{That’s the question I left with after interviewing Noor Kapdi, and one I think every law student needs to sit with.}

^{Why Noor Kapdi?}

^{Most lawyers build their careers within the system. Noor Kapdi helped change it. First, as a student activist during apartheid. Later, by founding KapdiTwala. It was an empowerment-led firm that merged with Dentons, the world’s largest law firm by footprint. Not just to expand in Africa, but to put transformation at the centre of the profession.}

^{Today, he’s the founding CEO of Dentons South Africa and a global leader in the firm’s ESG and transformation work, operating at the intersection of law, justice, and structural change.}

^{But it’s not the titles that make him worth listening to. It’s the fact that he’s been on both sides of the system: challenging it when it excluded, and reshaping it to include.}

^{So when Noor Kapdi speaks about purpose, power, principle and the future of law, you lean in.}

^{Start With Purpose, Not the Plan}

^{One of the first things Mr Kapdi said in our interview stuck with me:}

^{“You’ll find your place to start when you have your purpose. You don’t stumble on it, you search for it.”}

^{That flipped everything I’ve been told about “making it” in law. We’re constantly nudged to tick boxes: get the grades, choose a path, stand out. But Mr Kapdi didn’t build his career by following a formula. He followed a question:}

^{How can I use the law to serve humanity?}

^{That single question gave shape to everything he did, from testifying at commissions, structuring multi-country mergers to mentoring the next generation of lawyers.}

^{And maybe that’s the point: clarity doesn’t come from planning, it comes from purpose.}

^{The Quiet Work of True Transformation}

^{When I asked Mr Kapdi what truly scared him in his career, I expected a courtroom war story. What he said caught me off guard:}

^{“There was a cause I was willing to die for. But when change came, I didn’t know how to live in that society.”}

^{He was talking about the fall of apartheid. Mr Kapdi had spent his youth fighting for freedom and equality. But once democracy arrived, the deeper system behind the law was largely untouched.}

^{“The law changed. But the structures didn’t unravel with the stroke of a pen.”}

^{Law firms remained exclusive. Opportunities were still uneven. Power didn’t shift overnight. Mr Kapdi found himself not just fighting injustice, but navigating it from within.}

^{Lesson: Just because something changes on paper doesn’t mean it is altered in practice.}

^{If You Want to Change the Law, Look at Who Owns It}

^{Mr Kapdi doesn’t romanticise the legal system. He understands that law reflects the systems that create it and that justice doesn’t automatically follow legislation.}

^{“The law is dynamic,” he said. “But the business of law? That’s still slow. And it’s still shaped by the past.”}

^{We are trained to analyse judgments and statutes, but how often do we interrogate the business model of law itself? Who owns firms? Who leads them? Who controls capital and strategy?}

^{Mr Kapdi’s view is clear: transformation can’t be skin-deep. It has to reach ownership, governance, and structure.}

^{His vision for the law firm of the future?}

• ^{More Black than White}
  

• ^{More globally connected}
  

• ^{More collaborative}
  

• ^{Digitally fluent}
  

• ^{And built for inclusion, not just tradition}
  

^{Lesson: Law isn’t just about doctrine, it’s infrastructure. If we want to change the system, we have to rebuild it.}

^{The Future Must Be In the Room}

^{Mr Kapdi mentors countless lawyers but insists the learning goes both ways:}

^{“Most decisions are about the future. If the future isn’t in the room, the decisions will be defective.”}

^{He listens to young voices, not out of charity, but necessity. Because students see the world differently. We question the assumptions that older systems take for granted. And we’re not limited by how things have always been done.}

^{Lesson: Our ideas as students matter. Our questions matter. And if we’re brave enough to voice them, we may help shape decisions being made right now.}

^{Your Purpose Will Shift, And That Is Okay}

^{Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Mr Kapdi if his purpose had changed. He didn’t hesitate.}

^{“It sharpens. It redefines itself. That’s normal.”}

^{There’s this myth that if you don’t find your calling in university, you’ve missed your moment. But Mr Kapdi reminded me that purpose is fluid. It changes as we grow, sharpen, and evolve.}

^{Purpose isn’t a moment, it’s a muscle. And the more we use it, the stronger and more defined it becomes.}

^{The End Is Just the Beginning: Noor Kapdi’s Closing Message}

^{Mr Kapdi didn’t give me a formula or a hack for getting ahead. What he offered was direct and much more valuable.}

^{He gave me permission to slow down.}

^{To reflect.}

^{To ask questions.}

^{He reminded me that a legal career isn’t about ticking off titles. It’s about who you serve, what you stand for, and what kind of profession and society you are helping to build.}

^{So, if you’re a student still figuring it out? You’re not behind. You’re becoming.}

^{Look. Ask. Listen.}

^{That’s where the real work begins.}