With just eight months to go before the final provisions of the Legal Practice Act 2014 are put into effect, the legal profession is preparing for the radical transformation of its operational landscape, reports Venilla Yoganathan for Legalbrief. With emphasis on stronger regulation, transparency and accessibility, the Act, gazetted in September 2014, will fundamentally alter several long-entrenched legal practices, including the role and functions of attorneys and advocates; fee structures; and disciplinary processes.

It will also see a dissolution of various disjointed laws and policies governing the profession and usher in a single overarching regulatory framework by adopting a national approach over the existing provincial approach. Today and tomorrow, legal professionals will meet in Cape Town at the LSSA’s annual conference to discuss the pending changes and implications for their work.

Speakers include Professor Wolfgang Ewer, the immediate past president of the German Bar Association which underwent similar changes. Until now, the SA legal profession has been largely left to self-regulate. But, if plans proceed as scheduled, a single new regulatory body, the Legal Practice Council, for all legal practitioners, will be operational by November, effectively dissolving the existing provincial law societies.

In terms of the Act, legal practitioners will also have to abide by a code of conduct and rules of professional conduct. Transgressions of the code and rules could see legal practitioners appearing before disciplinary committees which would include lay people and be open to the public, with the entire process reviewable by a legal services ombudsman. However, Nadel, the Black Lawyers Association and Bar councils will continue in their present forms as they are voluntary associations. The Legal Practice Council will be a strictly regulatory body, so the LSSA is expected to be used as a possible framework for a national professional association to protect, promote and represent the interests of legal practitioners, and will continue to function for a three-year transitional period from October 2018, said the association’s Barbara Whittle.

Setting the cat among the pigeons is the provision for the first time, for the breakdown of the hierarchy and strict separation between advocates and attorneys. Now, a legal practitioner who has been enrolled as an attorney or advocate may convert his or her enrolment from attorney to advocate and vice versa, under certain conditions. Advocates may also take instructions directly from the public provided they have trust accounts. Another thorny issue is the fee structure of the legal profession which many regard as exorbitant for large sections of the population. The issue will be the subject of an investigation by the South African Law Reform Commission during the two-year transitional period. However, during this time fees for legal services (litigious and non-litigious) should be in accordance with tariffs determined by the Rules Board for Courts of Law, which will take into account the importance, significance and complexity of the service rendered, the seniority and experience of the legal practitioner concerned, the volume of work done and the financial implications. This is regarded by many to be very complex and difficult to apply in practice for non-litigious matters.