Best efforts from SA’s best lawyers in the spotlight
recognised. Not surprisingly, Johannesburg is the metro with the most listed Best Lawyers. Lawyer of the Year is awarded annually to individual lawyers with the highest overall peer feedback for a special practice area and geographic region. Only one lawyer is recognised as the Lawyer of the Year for a speciality and metropolitan location per edition. This year, the top practice areas are corporate law, litigation, intellectual property law, mergers and acquisitions law and labour and employment law. Attorneys are nominated for consideration and then evaluated by their peers based
areas across four metropolitan areas Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth have been
Track record and outcomes set firms apart
CLIENTS REMAIN COST SENSITIVE. IT S IMPORTANT THEY FEEL THEY ARE GETTING VALUE FOR MONEY FOR LEGAL SERVICES
That litigation has been successfully resolved but raised interesting conceptual issues from a competition law perspective, says Norton. The firm has also been involved in some groundbreaking engagements with the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) in terms of reaching settlements on behalf of corporate clients and recently successfully represented Freedom under Law in challenging the appointment by the National Assembly of former judge John Hlophe to the Judicial Services Commission. Norton says clients remain cost sensitive. It s important they feel they are getting value for money for legal services. Our key imperative is to ensure we obtain successful outcomes and the money we spend on legal matters is commensurate with the outcomes we achieve.
One of the biggest challenges facing the profession, he believes, is maintaining consistent results in the face of increasing pressure to turn around work product in very short time periods and often under significant pressure.
Hayley Kellermann, an associate at Smiedt & Associates, agrees that a firm s ability to achieve positive outcomes for clients should be a key consideration among prospective clients. She says Smiedt & Associates, a boutique firm, distinguishes itself through a highly responsive, hands-on approach, offering a swift turnaround that lets clients know they are a top priority.
We re not just surface-level generalists, we make it our business to master the nuances of each case, ensuring we secure the best possible outcomes for our clients.
Our firm has continued to raise the standard for client service, consistently delivering positive results for our clients, big and small, whether it be complex, high-stakes or straightforward matters. She says one of the biggest challenges facing the firm is delays caused by state departments, an industry-wide grievance that affects the entire legal profession.
The wheels of not only justice, but also administration, often turn slowly, creating obstacles that can hinder efficiency. Our team has become adept at keeping the pressure on, making sure each case stays on track and advances steadily instead of falling into a backlog.
Profession is ‘mired in an ethical crisis’
margins. Many smaller, mainly black-owned, firms are struggling to survive. One unfortunate consequence of this is the negative impact on ethical standards within the profession he says, adding that some have succumbed to temptation and stolen from their trust accounts to survive financially Govender says the code of conduct for legal practitioners, candidate legal practitioners and juristic entities in SA lacks the serious philosophical, conscience and moral roots necessary for the absorption of legal ethics. The philosophical and historical roots are matters that should form part of a mandatory module for law studies in LLB degrees. He maintains that there are serious gaps in the legal education under the LLB law degree. It is shameful that as of 2016, only three universities were engaged in teaching, or intended to teach, ethics via full course mandatory modules. The majority of law deans have failed the legal profession and society in understanding their roles in producing wellrounded law graduates who will contribute to building a better SA and who will help strengthen our constitutional democracy and the rule of law, essential for a society rooted in equality and justice.
violations of human rights in pursuit of profits occur, only muted voices, if any, are raised from multinational corporate law firms. This is glaring in many parts of mineral rich Africa, the oil rich parts of the Middle East and elsewhere In SA, legal practices have not been immune from the economic challenges facing the country. Many firms, says Govender, have had to rationalise their operations and retrench staff to maintain profit
3 universities in SA as of 2016 were engaged in teaching, or intended to teach, ethics via full course mandatory modules
