legal profession produces its own equity charter 
6 December 2007

Members of the Law Society of SA co-chairmen David Gush and Henry Msimang said that the adoption of the charter was an “historic achievement and a milestone for the profession”. Gush and Msimang said that the society’s commitment to transformation was reflected in the sentiments expressed in the charter.

The objectives of the charter will enforce the C onstitution, the Promotion of Access to Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, and the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act.  In the charter, both the legal profession and the government make a number of undertakings to achieve its objectives.

The main challenge facing the legal profession is the shortage of black lawyers in SA as a result of historical barriers to entry into the profession.

There are 17501 lawyers in SA but only one in 10 is black. The charter document says that the challenge is the transformation of the legal profession to ensure that it is representative of the racial and gender composition of South African society and to enable appointments to be made to the judiciary which reflect the demographics of SA.

The legal profession and the government have undertaken to provide skills development and training and mentorship programmes for black lawyers.

The Law Society and the advocates’ profession are in the process of developing scorecards which will reflect targets and measure transformation in the profession. Se parate scorecards will apply to small firms, medium firms, large practices and the advocates’ profession.  The elements addressed in the scorecards may include ownership, management control, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development, socioeconomic development and social transformation.

The legal profession hopes to hand over the charter officially to Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Brigitte Mabandla this month.

The first draft of the charter was launched in August last year and s ince then it had undergone a number of changes .

Sanchia Temkin, www.businessday.co.za