LETTER: Quotas a temporary measure for legal profession
Act requires that the Legal Practice Council take into account the racial and gender composition of SA
Paul Hoffman SC of Accountability Now raised many issues in his article, “Quotas for new council are at odds with our non-racial, non-sexist order” (October 2). The Law Society of SA supports the current election process for the new Legal Practice Council, and the fact that all legal practitioners will be regulated by one national body in the near future. As this is the first of such elections, it cannot be expected to be perfect nor totally satisfactory. The quotas were gazetted as part of the regulations made by the National Forum on the Legal Profession under section 109(1)(a) of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014. Although the act does not define the quotas, it does require that the composition of the Legal Practice Council must, as far as practicable, take into account the racial and gender composition of SA. The National Forum, which included representatives of the attorneys’ and advocates’ professions, debated and agonised over this issue extensively. Similarly, parliament’s j...
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