Listening in on conversations amongst colleagues, if one was that way inclined, one would often hear attorneys enquiring from one another to the following effect: “Which counsel do you use?” or “Do you know any good counsel?”.
If one was counsel standing in the vicinity and overhearing this conversation one would be tempted to shout “Me, me, me… use me. I am good counsel.” The truth of the matter is that good counsel is not always in the vicinity and promoting oneself as shamelessly, as in our example, may in fact have adverse consequences. There is possibly something to be said about professional etiquette in such a case as well.
Ever since the coming into force of the Right of Appearance in Courts Act, 1995, one could be forgiven (albeit that this is a different ‘one’ than before) for asking, “Why use counsel at all?”, as the previously exclusive areas of practise for advocates have been done away with since the commencement of the Right of Appearance Act.
It is now almost 30 years since the Right of Appearance Act came into force and a lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge. The Right of Appearance Act has been repealed and the Legal Practice Act substituted its provisions with minor amendment. In the result we remain with a split profession where attorneys, after complying with certain requirements, can do anything that an advocate does, while the inverse is not necessarily true (except perhaps, to a minor extent, for the new creature known as a trust account advocate).
In light of the above exposé and despite the passage of some 30 years, the question “Why use counsel at all?”, still remains relevant today. Why is it that a dual profession was retained? Why is it that when the draft Legal Practice Bill envisaged doing away with the split profession that the lawmaker was ultimately convinced to rather retain it? In a series of articles posted here we (that would be the ‘royal we’) shall endeavour to answer the question “Why use counsel at all?” as well as the question “Know any good counsel?” (to which the writer would want the answer to be: “Me, me, me…”).
Come back – often – to read some of the (suggested) answers to the questions above.
