Marina Clift grew up in the Little Karoo and went to school in Calitzdorp where her father, Kobus Mouton, still has a law practice – Barry & Mouton. It was her father's passion for the law and commitment to ethical practices that inspired her to study law at the University of Stellenbosch. Her father's first typewriter still has a place of honour in her office, as does an old photograph of her hometown Calitzdorp.