2014 year of the morally ethical lawyer 

Mapula Sedutla – Acting editor

The beginning of a year signals the time when most people make personal resolutions or goals they would like to achieve for the year. This year should be the year the profession endeavours to ensure that when dealing with their clients, colleagues, commissioners, judges, magistrates and the public they remain morally ethical and uphold the highest standards of the law. 

One of the greatest examples of a morally ethical lawyer was former President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) has called ‘one of the greatest moral compasses’ of the profession (see p 6 – 8). As we bid farewell and celebrate the life of former President Mandela, the profession should take a page from his book and learn that the profession is not only about earning an income, but also has a humanitarian element to it.

As former Chief Justice Ngcobo points out on p 13, in his speech at the Cape Law Society annual general meeting (AGM), sensitivity to ethics and professional responsibility are essential attributes law graduates should strive to achieve. If morals and ethics are instilled in attorneys from the time they study for their LLB degree, they would be hard lessons to ignore when they practice.

In a press release in mid-November the LSSA Co-chairpersons David Bekker and Kathleen Matolo-Dlepu said that: ‘The legal profession is an honourable one and attorneys are bound by strict rules of ethics and professional conduct. Conduct that leads to unnecessary delays and prejudice to litigants, as well as excessive fees – or overreaching – are not tolerated. We believe that such conduct can be eradicated with the assistance of judicial officers and other stakeholders’ (see p 25). These are words the profession should take to heart and strive to live by.

Over the past few years the image of the profession has been tarnished by media reports of unethical conduct by some attorneys. The Attorneys’ Fidelity Fund’s (AFF’s) 2013 report on claims paints a better picture of the profession than what is usually seen in media reports. The AFF’s report shows that there have been 348 less claims to the fund in 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012. The report also shows that the percentage of errant attorneys is still less than 1%. As CP Fourie, Chairperson of the AFF said, during his speech at the Cape Law Society AGM, any attorney who stole was one too many. However, the report also shows that the trend over the years is the increment of the amounts being misappropriated. 

The public’s perception on the profession is very important as Deputy Minister John Jeffery said, in his speech at the Law Society of the Northern Provinces AGM: ‘Attorneys and advocates are officers of the court. They regard themselves as honourable people who are part of a noble profession. But why is it that the public perception of lawyers is not the same and that all the jokes about lawyers is of them being money grabbing and dishonest people? Ultimately it’s about delivering quality services to the public and the protection of the public’ (see p 18).

It is the responsibility of each and every attorney to ensure that the image of the profession is protected at all times.

Would you like to write for De Rebus?

De Rebus welcomes article contributions in all 11 official languages, especially from legal practitioners. Practitioners and others who wish to submit feature articles, practice notes, case notes, opinion pieces and letters can e-mail their contributions to derebus@derebus.org.za.

The decision on whether to publish a particular submission is that of the De Rebus Editorial Committee, whose decision is final. In general, contributions should be useful or of interest to practising attorneys and must be original and not published elsewhere. For more information, see the ‘Guidelines for articles in De Rebus’ on our website (www.derebus.org.za). 

Please note that the word limit is now 2000 words.

Upcoming deadlines for article submissions: 17 February 2014 and 17 March 2014.