Challenge to big 5 law firms

Minister gazettes legal code which sector indicated they would litigate against.

- Paul Janisch

There has been very little black economic empowerment (BEE) activity from the department of trade, industry and competition since Rob Davies vacated his post as minister of the then department of trade and industry in 2019.

To most of us this was a case of no news is good news.

The good news came to an end when current minister Parks Tau gazetted the legal sector code in September.

Normally this is an unremarkable event; most of the time these codes are received, absorbed and implemented.

This time things are hopefully a little different. There is a backstory behind this code and its gazetting.

The Draft Legal Sector Code closed for comments in March 2021. The code lay dormant until just before the May elections.

The story goes that John Jeffery, then deputy minister of justice and constitutional development, asked the Big Five law firms whether they would litigate if the draft code was gazetted.

This was answered in the affirmative.