After more than three decades of democracy, the legal sector has remained one of the least transformed in South Africa, with Legal Practice Council (LPC) figures indicating that 72% of partners or directors in the country’s top six firms remain white, with black representation standing at 25%.
So wide is the gulf that black firms are stunted by a maximum of 18 partners or directors, compared to 396 in white practices.
Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday on the implications of the Legal Sector Codes in the legal fraternity, Legal Sector Charter Council (LSCC) chairperson Christine Qunta, highlighted a myriad key challenges facing black practitioners, including discriminatory procurement practices by the private sector.
Qunta said inadequate access to sustainable flow of quality legal work, unequal access to senior management roles in racially-mixed law firms, were among the barriers to black lawyers achieving growth.
“There are poor and inconsistent briefing patterns from state organs and large majority white law firms.
“Black legal practitioners also suffer due to lack of exposure to lucrative and complex legal work.
“Other challenges include lack of placement for law graduates as candidate attorneys, lack of absorption for junior admitted attorneys, systematic challenges for black women practitioners, high attrition rates and lack of training in specialised areas of law.”
Qunta added that skills shortages due to limited access to quality and specialised legal areas was another challenge.
She said the LSCC had a mandate to ensure that all legal professionals had a fair chance at success.
“Transformation of the legal sector is an economic imperative.
“With the Legal Sector Codes, we do not aim to only measure success through compliance to the scorecard but also to ensure an inclusive and sustainable legal sector, encouraging all stakeholders to contribute towards meaningful change.’’
Sector codes exist across all economic areas in South Africa, with the measure of success being to ultimately ensure broad-based black economic empowerment (broad-based BEE).
For the legal sector in particular, the codes emphasise black ownership, skills development, training in specialised areas of law and briefing of black attorneys and advocates, among other key indicators detailed in the scorecard.
The Legal Sector Fund is set to be a vital intervention in boosting the implementation of the legal code.
It will provide wide ranging support, including library, research, subscriptions and maternity support for practicing female attorneys; and advocates.
With transformation being a constitutional and economic imperative — gazetted two years ago in accordance with Section g(1) of the BBBEE amended Act 53 of 2003 — the Legal Sector Code gives effect to the constitutional right to equality for black legal practitioners.
Among the key provisions of the Legal Sector Codes, law firms are required to brief 40% of advocates in year one and two, increasing to 60% in year five.
Other far-reaching Legal Sector Codes provisions are:
- State-owned enterprise and organs of state “must procure 70% of their legal services from black attorneys and advocates, of which 40% must go to black female practitioners, increasing to 80% and 50% respectively in year five”.
- There should be 30% of equity directors or partners in a large law firm to be black practitioners in year one and two, increasing to 50% in year five.
- Fifteen percent of said equity directors or partners “must be black women in year one and two, increasing to 25% in year five”.
- Board participation should reflect 30% of equity directors in year one and two — “must be black, increasing to 50% in year five”.
- Senior management (heads of departments) should be 20% black in year one and two, increasing to 30% in year five.
Having engaged key stakeholders to ensure a swift implementation and compliance of the Legal Sector Codes, Qunta said the LSCC had held meetings with the Auditor-General (AG) and the SA Local Government Association (Salga).
“We needed to make sure that the AG is aware of the code and she was able to assure us that when they do their audit framework, they will ensure indicators and measurement.
“Among other issues, the AG will look at the procurement of legal services and compliance with the sector code.
“We also signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Salga, helping us to strengthen compliance and monitoring across all municipalities,” she said.
The LSCC is forging ahead with implementation of the Legal Sector Codes, boosted by the National Empowerment Fund.
The LSCC, in partnership with the National Empowerment Fund, has announced plans to accelerate the implementation of the LSC to ensure meaningful change in the legal profession.
A huge step forward in achieving an inclusive and fully transformed sector has been the establishment of the Legal Sector Transformation Fund, which has allocated R1 million this year, placing black candidate attorneys in various law firms for training.
The Sandton briefing pointed to various challenges hindering transformation in the legal sector.
In her address, Dr Susan Mangole, the deputy director-general in the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), said the equality clause in the constitution was given practical application by the Broad-Based BEE Act across all economic sectors.
The government's objective on transformation was to promote broad-based BEE and fair access for historically disadvantaged groups.
“Most importantly, the government is now moving to ensure that sufficient resources are brought in to ensure meaningful change as is evident with the Transformation Fund launched by the DTIC,” Mangole said.
National Empowerment Fund CEO Mziwabantu Dayimani said the LSCC and fund’s partnership aimed to garner support from broader stakeholders in the legal sector.
“The goal is to encourage the public, private sector, state-owned entities and professional bodies to match the NEF’s commitment — by pledging their own resources, towards expanding this fund to contribute to transformation in the legal sector.”
Dayimani added: “In the legal field, the solutions we come up with must deal with challenges faced by legal professionals on the ground.
“We want to see more black graduates becoming specialised lawyers so that there is no reason for legal teams to lack diversity — or for private and public sector companies to assume that the skills are not available in black firms.”
LSCC CEO Charity Nzuza said there has been extensive stakeholder engagement to drive awareness across the legal profession and the public.
“These structured engagements will continue as the LSCC seeks to accelerate and ensure compliance with the code,” Nzuza said.
The LSCC was established in 2025, ensuring compliance with the Legal Sector Codes, driving transformation and accountability across South Africa’s legal profession.