Last week the Johannesburg Bar Council (JBC) took a decision that should cause their colleagues in the organised attorneys’ profession to cringe with embarrassment and blush with shame. It opened to media scrutiny, for the first time, a disciplinary enquiry into one of its advocate members. In contrast, though I agree it seems scarcely credible […]
Law Society of SA
Posted inNews/Politics
Something rotten in the state of the law
Lawyers love Latin axioms. Not only do these pithy phrases dating to Roman times encapsulate the law’s basic tenets, but also remind we plebs of the lawyer’s learning, which even if we don’t always benefit from as clients, we are likely to have to shell out dearly for. One popular maxim is Quis custodiet ipsos […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Just trust me, I’m a lawyer…
Despite a stonewalling legal establishment, the issue of attorney misconduct is hard to fudge. The reality is that South Africa’s law societies place member interests above transparency, appear to discipline members inconsistently, and are indifferent to international benchmarks. A few weeks back this column touched on the latitude granted to the professions to regulate themselves […]