The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has confirmed it will conduct a disciplinary inquiry into a prominent Cape Town lawyer after two female lawyers accused him of groping and touching them and making sexual comments to them while they were candidate attorneys.

The first complaint includes allegations that he ran his hand up a then-candidate attorney’s leg at a year-end function in 2012. 

News24 reports that the female attorney said she had been actively discouraged from laying a complaint against the more senior lawyer about these and other incidents when they happened, but had decided to do so in 2024 because she believed she had an obligation to ensure that his alleged misconduct was addressed.

She has been supported by two other female lawyers, one of whom had formally complained about the attorney’s alleged repeated inappropriate comments and conduct towards her, which included accusations that he pestered her at office functions and claimed that litigating gave him a sexual rush. 

The second accuser claimed the lawyer asked her whether her recently widowed mother was seeing anyone after zooming in on a picture she showed him of her mother and looking at her legs.

The accused – who resigned from a top Cape Town firm in 2018 after being accused of sexual harassment by his second accuser – threatened to seek an urgent interdict against News24 to block it from publishing details about that inquiry, which is due to start next month.

‘It is clear from the provisions of the relevant LPC policy/code and the act that these proceedings, including all its contents, are confidential,’ he stated.

He previously said he fully intended ‘to defend myself against the complaints which I maintain are in certain respects and in others based upon complaints that have misconstrued my conduct, and I would encourage such process to be expedited’.

News24 has responded that it does not share the lawyer’s interpretation that the LPC Act guarantees the confidentiality of all inquiry processes against legal professionals.

The LPC has not hesitated to confirm the identity of the lawyer and the fact that there is a ‘disciplinary process’ against him.

LPC spokesperson Kabelo Letebele said the matter was referred to an independent investigating committee who, after considering the matter, referred it for a disciplinary inquiry and a hearing is scheduled for July.

‘(The lawyer) has been informed accordingly, and our independent disciplinary committee will now consider this matter and make recommendations to council,’ he added.

Full News24 report