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The Legal Practice Bill and its impact on the profession

Tania McAnearney, Attorney and freelance writer 

‘The times they are a-changin’ (Bob Dylan - 1963) 
 
The title of Bob Dylan’s 1963 hit is certainly apt for the legal profession in South Africa at this moment in time. The Legal Practice Bill (the ‘Bill’), which, for the past eight years, has been intensely debated by the Law Society of South Africa (‘the LSSA’) and the Task Team (appointed by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development), will fundamentally change governance structures for both attorneys and advocates.  

Irreconcilable differences between the LSSA and the Task Team, resulted in the drafting of two versions of the Bill during 2002. 

This presentation on the Bill will cover the following key areas:

• Brief background of the Bill;
• Points in agreement between the LSSA and the Task Team;
• Major points of disagreement between the LSSA and the Task Team: the most fundamental difference between the LSSA’s Bill and the Task Team’s Bill is the structuring and membership of the national regulatory body for legal practitioners;
• Points of disagreement between the LSSA and the General   Council of the Bar (‘the GCB’): in essence, this pertains to the GCB’s fear of fusion of the professions of attorneys and advocates and the GCB’s view that the national regulatory body should not have both representative and regulatory powers; and
• The way forward: the LSSA has stated that it is time for “active engagement with all the relevant stakeholders in the legal profession and [in] the justice department to move forward on the draft Legal Practice Bill” and that some aspects of the Bill, which are less controversial, could be considered for interim implementation.

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