The South African Legal Practice Council vs. Reeva-Joy and Others - (14 Dec 2020)

Attorney is entitled to move single application for the removal of their name from the roll of attorneys and their admission as an advocate

Civil

In present matter, the Respondents had all been admitted and enrolled as attorneys and wished to be advocates. They relied on Section 115 of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (the LPA) to assert their right to be enrolled as advocates. Section 115 of the LPA preserves the right of any person who had qualified to be admitted as an advocate, under the Admission of Advocates Act 74 of 1964, prior to the commencement of the LPA on 1 November 2018, to be admitted as an advocate thereafter.

The LPC contended, firstly, that on a proper interpretation of the LPA the section applied only to applications for admission which had been launched before the LPA came into effect; secondly, that the Respondents did not qualify to be admitted as advocates before the LPA came into effect because their names had not been removed from the roll of attorneys, a prerequisite for admission as an advocate, at that time; and thirdly, that once the Respondents had been admitted as attorneys the LPA entrusted the regulation of the conversion to the LPC to the exclusion of the high Court.

Section 115 of LPA preserves the right of all persons who qualified before the LPA came into effect to be admitted and enrolled at any time thereafter. It held further, that before the LPA came into operation, an attorney was entitled to move in a single application for the removal of their name from the roll of attorneys and their admission as an advocate. As this right accrued to the Respondents before the LPA came into operation, they were entitled in terms of Section 115 to their admission.

The LPC may, by its rules, enable experienced practitioners to move from one form of practice to another, without undergoing all the vocational training prescribed under Section 26 for admission to and enrolment in such practice. As a matter of logic, however, it cannot demand that an attorney seeking to convert their enrolment to an advocate must first attain a greater qualification 15 than that set by the LPA for admission by the high court. To the extent that it did so in respect of the first applicant it exceeded its powers.

Section 32 empowers Legal Practice Council to convert enrolment of a legal practitioner without recourse to the high Court. Section 32 does not detract from jurisdiction of the high Court to order the Legal Practice Council to enrol a legal practitioner as an advocate where the practitioner qualifies for enrolment as such in terms of the Legal Practice Act. In respect of the LPC’s power of conversion, the SCA found that because the Respondents’ right to admission as advocates had been preserved in terms of Section 115 of LPA there was no basis for the LPC to exercise any power of conversion and the high Court effectively performed the conversion in terms of Section 115 of LPA. Appeal dismissed.

Tags : ENROLMENT LEGAL PRACTITIONER RIGHT