South Africa : Pushback against new mandatory community service rule for lawyers in South Africa

  • 19 July 2022 / News / 392 / Fares RAHAHLIA


South Africa : Pushback against new mandatory community service rule for lawyers in South Africa

The opposition Democratic Alliance says it is strongly opposed to the draft legal sector code that president Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet last week approved for publication.

The DA warned that the current provisions are too onerous and unnecessarily racialised.

“What the DA finds highly troubling is the nonsensical pro bono requirement of firms earning an income between R3 million and R15 million being required to perform 200 hours of pro bono work per attorney for poor, marginalised and black clients from rural areas,” said the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach, who is an advocate of the high court.

“The stipulation that the pro bono work must be performed for black clients is unnecessary as a person who is poor and requires pro bono assistance will require such assistance irrespective of their skin colour.”

Other requirements in the code that the DA finds troubling are:

  • A firm earning above R15 million will only need to do 500 hours of pro bono work per year per company;
  • Advocates with revenues above R5 million will need to do 150 hours of pro bono per year;

While pro bono legal work is important, these requirements are vastly more than the existing requirement of 24 hours per annum, and will be overly burdensome on the profession, said Breytenbach.

“These requirements are also nonsensical in that they burden lower earning firms to a far greater degree than higher earning firms.

“If the government goes ahead and gazettes it, the DA will formally submit our objections, and we will encourage other South Africans, especially those in the legal profession, to also do so.”


source: businesstech

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