John Hare set his sights on a career in maritime law during his final year of BComm LLB at UCT. After just short of a year's training at Safmarine in their London office, he completed an LLM in marine and maritime law at University College, London. During this time he obtained a Diploma in the Science & Technology of Navigation at the Sir John Cass merchant naval college in London.

Next step was joining Fairbridge Arderne & Lawton in Cape Town where he served articles under John Reay, founder president of the SA MLA. At Fairbridges, he joined John Reay and Simon Cooper in the Shipping Department and seldom ventured out of maritime law during the 17 years he remained with the firm. The bulk of his practice was P&I Club related and he reminisces often, and not without nostalgia, of the major shipping disasters in which he wore the cap of Club Correspondent.

In 1981 John was a participating teacher in the first Maritime Law shortcourse offered by UCT - a course which was repeated in 1983. When the LLM programme began in 1985, John joined the team of part-time lecturers, teaching maritime law subjects every second year until 1991.

The lure of academia prevailed in 1994 when he was offered a permanent full-time post as Associate Professor, and he then formed the Shipping Law Unit. He teaches the bulk of the coursework in Shipping Law, and teaches Insurance Law to the LLB students. He is the founding convener of the LLM course on The Law of International Trade. In 1999 he was awarded a Chair of Shipping Law at the UCT Faculty of Law.

John is immediate past president of the SA MLA, and was elected to the Council of the Comite Maritime International.  He keeps his practice hand in tune as a part-time partner of the law  firm Shepstone & Wylie. He has been appointed Referee by the High Court in a number of cases involving competing admiralty claims against the proceeds of the judicial sale of ships.

He has completed a major publication, Shipping Law & Admiralty Jurisdiction in South Africa (1,200 pp., published by Juta & Co., Cape Town, 1999; ISBN 0-7021-4812-1) which is the first comprehensive study of maritime law in South Africa since the Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act of 1983 broke the shackles of  English Colonial admiralty jurisdiction.

Professor Hare received a Distinguished Teacher Award in December 2000.

He has an artist wife, two sons, and is happiest enjoying with his family the wonders of outdoor Africa and its shores either in his Landrover or on a boat.