Lawyers in South Africa

South African law consists of the common law (previous decisions of the superior courts, and rules and principles discussed in the ‘old Roman-Dutch authorities’) and statutory law (acts of the national and provincial legislatures, and governmental regulations). The law is not codified and, like English law, must be sought in court decisions and individual statutes. Since 1994, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa has been the supreme law.

The third arm of the central government is an independent judiciary. The Constitutional Court is the highest court for interpreting and deciding constitutional issues while the Supreme Court of Appeal is the highest court for nonconstitutional matters.

The Pretoria Bar Association The legal profession is divided into two branches: attorneys, sometimes referred to as lawyers, and advocates. Think of them in terms of a doctor and a specialist ... The attorney, like the doctor, is the person with whom you first make contact when you have a legal problem. Therefore, an attorney needs to be readily accessible to everyone, and the service he or she supplies needs to be broad enough to cover a wide field of legal problems.

The Corporate Lawyers Association CLASA is a non-profit association managed by a Board, and an Executive Committee, elected by CLASA’s members. The Association is funded by members’ subscriptions and by revenue generated by educational courses and other activities. CLASA currently has approximately 340 members, including corporate lawyer representatives of 50 companies and other organisations.