Black law firms forced to battle unfair odds
Skewed perceptions of competency and posturing about transformation are just two of the challenges, writes Lucien Pierce
I smiled the last time I watched Khumisi Kganare drive off in his clapped-out old Toyota Corolla. We had just co-presented a practice management seminar for the Law Society. Kganare is a bright, young commercial lawyer specialising in information and communications technology law, an area regarded as cutting-edge. He and his partner run their own firm and have been in business for about three years. I smiled because Kganare’s Corolla was a good sign. It told me he had chosen not to take short cuts; that he was running his firm honestly, ethically and properly, while facing the many challenges black-owned firms confront. Firms such as Kganare’s and mine do not face a level playing field. We are disadvantaged from the outset, making it difficult to build the capacity to compete with even medium-sized white-owned law firms. Black-owned commercial law firms are outnumbered. In 2016, there were 12,373 law firms in SA and only 31 of them had more than 20 attorneys. According to the Law So...
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