Senior advocates take silk ruling on appeal

Times Live reports that the General Council of the Bar of SA has filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in a dispute about who may confer the status of senior counsel (awarding of silk) on a practising advocate.

Council chairman Gerrit Pretorius said that a notice of appeal had also been filed in the Constitutional Court. Earlier this month the Pretoria High Court found that the president had no power to confer the senior status on practising advocates in terms of the constitution. In his ruling, Judge Legodi Phatudi said he did not agree with the argument made on behalf of the council that the prerogatives of monarchs and former state presidents were codified in the constitution.

He ruled that the phrase "conferring honours" could not mean any act by the president that resulted in an individual being accorded an honour he had not earned. The judge disagreed with the respondents that the conferral of senior counsel status was indeed an honour. As an example, he mentioned that police officers who have been honoured by being awarded the Soccer World Cup 2010 Support Medal "did not apply to be so honoured. On that basis," he continued, "I am of the view that an honour is earned while serving the country exceptionally beyond the ordinary call of the day." According to Times Live, Pretorius said members of the constituent bars of the general council applied for silk once a year. The Legal Practice Bill expressly recognised and provided for conferring senior status on legal practitioners.

Read the full article on www.timeslive.co.za.