The Legal Sector Charter Council (LSCC) in partnership with the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) has announced their plans to accelerate the implementation of the Legal Sector Codes 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. The fund has already allocated R1m to placing black candidate attorneys in various law firms for training this year.
The briefing held in Sandton today, emphasised many challenges that hinder transformation in the legal sector such as; inadequate access to a sustainable flow of quality legal work, discriminatory procurement practices by the private sector, poor and inconsistent briefing patterns from state organs, skills shortages, especially in specialised areas of law and systemic challenges for black women practitioners.
The Deputy Director General at the DTIC, Dr Susan Mangole addressed the gathering, remarking that; “The equality clause in the Constitution is given practical application by the BBBEE Act across all economic sectors. The objective of government with regards to transformation is to promote BBBEE and fair access for previously disadvantaged groups. Most importantly, 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.”
The Chairperson of the LSCC Christine Qunta added; “The Legal Sector Charter Council has a mandate to ensure that all legal professionals have 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 by encouraging all stakeholders to contribute towards meaningful change.”
Sector codes exist across all economic areas in South Africa. The measure of success is to ultimately ensure broad based empowerment. For the legal sector in particular, the codes emphasise black ownership, skills development, training in specialised areas of law, briefing of black attorneys and advocates, amongst other key indicators detailed in the scorecard.
The Legal Sector Fund will be a vital intervention in boosting the implementation of the legal codes. It will provide wide ranging support, including library and research subscriptions, maternity support for practicing female attorneys and advocates.
“Following the NEF’s R51 million commitment towards funding transformation in the legal sector, the two entities, LSCC and NEF, have partnered 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 towards transformation in the legal sector,” urged Mr Mzi Dayimani, the NEF CEO.
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. One such example, is the agreement with the Auditor General that as part of public entity audits, the AG will test whether there is compliance with the Legal sector codes by the public sector,” Commented Ms Charity Nzuza CEO of the LSCC.
As the Legal Sector Codes move from policy to practice, it becomes critically important to have alignment across the private and public sector.
Mr Dayimani concluded that, “In the legal field, the solutions we come up with must deal with challenges that legal professionals face 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.”
The Legal Sector Charter Council was established in 2025 and ensures compliance with the Legal Sector Code, driving transformation and accountability across South Africa’s legal profession.