Legal Practice Council to amend code of conduct
14 Jan 2019
The Draft Amended Code of Conduct for Legal Practitioners has been published in Government Gazette 42127 for comment.
The draft code was drawn up by the Legal Practice Council.
The original code of conduct was published in February 2017.
The draft code focuses on, inter alia, conduct of attorneys, sharing of fees, sharing of offices, naming in deed of alienation, misconduct, norm of the reasonable fee, general work and conduct of legal practitioners not in private practice.
Some of the general provisions outlined in the draft code include maintaining the highest standards of honesty and integrity, upholding the Constitution, treating the interests of clients as paramount, honouring undertakings given by legal practitioners, respecting the freedom of clients to be represented by a legal practitioner of their choice, retaining the necessary independence and complying with the provisions of the code.
Written comment is invited until 7 February 2019.
Meanwhile, in Notice 812, the Legal Practice Council published an amended Rule 16 dealing with the election of provincial councils.
According to the amendments, a member of a provincial council shall hold office for three years with the option of another term, all provincial councils except Gauteng to consist of six practising attorneys and four practising advocates, Gauteng to have eight practicing attorneys and four practicing advocates, first election for members to take place within 60 days of setting up, elections to be conducted by e-voting and/or paper ballot, nominations to be lodged with council for first election and new elections must be held within one month if an election is declared to be not free and fair by the referee or a court.
See also:
- Attorneys Act replaced in its entirety by Legal Practice Act
- Notyesi and Barnard elected co-chairpersons to lead Law Society in year of critical change for the legal profession
