23-04-2025
What the big law firms don't want South Africans to know
The opponents of economic transformation will never surrender without a fight, the author argues.
Image: Supplied
In January this year, Norton Rose Full Bright (Norton Rose), formerly Deneyz Reitz (an apartheid law firm) - recently joined by AfriForum, Solidarity (white minority NGOs), Bowmans, Werkmans and Webber Wentzel - announced their decision to legally challenge the Legal Sector Code (The LSC), that was gazetted by the Minister of Trade and Industry, and Competition.
The LSC is the BBBEE measurement framework for the legal profession.
In their challenge, Norton Rose asks the court to find that the LSC is invalid, irrational, and unlawful, the decision by the Minister to gazette the Sector Code.
Norton Rose goes on to allege that if the LSC is not set aside, they (only they and 5 other large firms) will suffer prejudice as their BBBEE level will drop significantly from level 1 to 6. This means that they will lose a lot of government legal work as a better BBBEE level rating is required for government work.
There are just over 10,000 law firms in SA. Most of these firms are in support of the LSC.
The small and medium law firms (both black and white-owned) and entities - especially those whose annual revenue is less than R5 million - are not expected to comply with the LSC since it mainly benefits them.
The legal challenge of the LSC is not entirely unexpected, especially since it seeks to disrupt the status quo, however the court application by Norton Rose actually confirms the long held suspicion that the opponents of economic transformation in South Africa, and everywhere in the world, will never surrender without a fight.
Notwithstanding this, and despite the claim by these large firms that they are "committed to transformation" - which we know they are not - there is still a lot that they do not tell South Africa.
Just to rub it in, they continue to use black faces and professionals as proxies in opposition to transformation. The senior counsel on brief in this application, for example, are mainly black males.
In March this year, for instance, coming out of a parliamentary question addressed to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, it became clear that the so-called large law firms combined, earned more than R100 million in legal fees over the past 5 years from the state and its departments. This excludes the spend on black law firms and Advocates. The figures could be higher. There is still no account or indication of how much of this landed in black hands. Favouring the status quo
What these Law Firms also do not tell SA is that, in essence, they are in favour of a measurement framework that effectively retains the current status quo. This not only promotes white-owned firms in fostering their receipt of more legal work, but also perpetually discriminates and increases the skewed briefing patterns in the legal sector.
The LSC is the product of an inclusive, consultative, and transparent process that was aimed at giving real effect to constitutional transformation. Over seven nationwide consultations with Industry stakeholders were held.
