Khadija Magardie Ask some of the countrys top law firms what they are doing to “give back” to the community and most claim they already fulfil their civic duties. Last week Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) national director Vinodh Jaichand said local lawyers should use their expertise and take on more pro bono work. The call was echoed by the chairperson of the Legal Aid Board, Judge Mohammed Navsa, who said that under apartheid lawyers scrambled to provide free legal services but this has since slowed to a trickle. “I dont think lawyers are exempt from working for the public good,” Navsa said. The LHR, which will be convening a conference on the issue next year, says part of the problem is that there is no code of conduct within the profession requiring practitioners to dedicate a certain amount of their time to pro bono work. Other jurisdictions by comparison, do. The American Bar Association lays down guidelines, saying: “A lawyer should aspire to render at least (50) hours of pro bono publico legal services per year … The lawyer should provide a substantial majority of the (50) hours of legal services without fee or expectation of fee (or at a substantially reduced fee) to indigent people, or charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental or educational institutions.” The director of the University of the Witwatersrand law clinic, Willem de Klerk, says it is “high time” an organised pro bono initiative is launched. Arguing that pro bono work should be strictly voluntary, De Klerk suggests a structure along the lines of the Australian Public Interest Advocacy Centre, founded by South African-born human-rights lawyer Andrea Durbach. The centre, which comprises a collection of law firms, barristers, accountancy firms and mediators, offers pro bono or reduced-fee legal services to the indigent.
Several of the countrys top law firms say they are certainly doing their duty. David Lancaster of Weber Wentzel Bowens says the firm regularly provides reduced-fee commercial advice to disadvantaged communities. For instance, the firm is a partner in an advice centre in Johannesburg, where it offers free legal advice to small businesses. Lancaster says most lawyers are in favour of doing pro bono work, as long as it is structured and not implemented randomly. Raymond Mashazi, an office bearer of the Black Lawyers Association and a senior partner at Mashazi, Sishi, Mathibela Incorporated says he “tries to do everything and anything”, from sitting as a commissioner in the Small Claims Court to offering free legal advice on consumer-related matters. Mashazi says that the dearth of pro bono legal services in the country is partly due to lawyers being “too commercialised”. Deneys Reitz legal firm also says it has “a long history” of pro bono work. Patrick Bracher, a senior director at the firm, has been heavily involved in pro bono work, particularly on issues of land restitution. One of Brachers more high-profile cases involved the rights of farm workers to be buried on the land on which they worked and lived. Bracher says most lawyers are in favour of the pro bono initiative, as long as it is structured. “Its part of the deal,” he says. In this months issue of Advocate, the South African Bar journal, a similar call was made for advocates to do pro bono work. In the article Gilbert Marcus, SC, proposes that a specific obligation be imposed on advocates to perform a stipulated minimum amount of work pro bono. While acknowledging that the commitment to do pro bono work is “largely a matter of ethical choice and not a matter of ethical obligation,” Marcus says that if the Bar wishes to affirm its statement of intent, of providing access to justice for indigent persons, it needs to do so via the creation of structures to implement and coordinate the system. Marcus suggests that each of the constituent Bars set up pro bono committees to oversee the process.