Abstract:
The implementation of the Legal Practice Act will have a profound impact on legal practitioners and
their practices. The Act provides for the establishment of an umbrella organization, the Legal
Practice Council, and for the abolishment of the current regulatory bodies. It envisages a “hybrid”
legal practitioner to compete directly with the current professional dispensation. The views
expressed are that the fusion of the profession is not the objective of the Act, but I defer and submit
that the initial debate on the fusion of the profession will proceed by way of jurisdiction. The
fundamental objective of the Act is for transformation of the legal profession as a transformative
imperative bestowed on government to enable access to justice for ordinary citizens. The question
that arises is to what extent the legal profession and its customs and traditions should be sacrificed
on the altar of this “forced” transformation. While the independence of the legal profession is
paramount to the independence of the bench as the judicial arm of the trias politica principle
entrenched in our Constitution, the segregation of powers seems to be blurred by the powers
bestowed onto the Minister in terms of the Act.
