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Jacob Zuma
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It was fascinating to see, at this morning's Gauteng Law Council AGM how attorneys clamoured to get a chance to greet Jacob Zuma. He got a standing ovation when he finished his speech. I was asked by the Law Society to take a few pictures, but by the time he left it was pretty hard to get past the press photographers and all the attorneys running after him, trying to shake his hand or making video's or taking pictures with their cell phones! Security was noticeably present and one had to have one's bag X-rayed before you could enter the hall. Pictured above is Jacob Zuma with Ronald Bobroff, Selemeng Mokose and Mervin Messias.
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Posted by Michael de Broglio on Saturday 15-Sep-07
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Another Jacob Zuma picture
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I don't normally fill my blog with pictures, but this is one I really like. It shows Hoossen Sader and Jacob Zuma this morning in a private conversation with the Gauteng Law Council management. He left the security, the advisers and press behind and spoke to us, before his presentation for 15 minutes. The picture I think captures Hoossen in a statemen like role - which is pretty much his leadership manner and has a natural look about it. I hope he likes it as much as I did taking it.
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Posted by Michael de Broglio on Saturday 15-Sep-07
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Zuma pic
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The pic I was referring to - it did not want to seem to load to the blog below.... I understand it will in fact be used by some of the media.
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Posted by Michael de Broglio on Sunday 16-Sep-07
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Rules set to change
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A quick update for my blog with an article I have written for the next edition of Order News on rules and ethics: The Rules and Ethics committee continues to have a major role in the shape and future of our profession. It does astound me, as I have written before that attorneys do not read the rules and continue to lay complaints about adverts or report firms of attorneys to the Law Society for having TV adverts! Sometime, somewhere my personal opinion is we need to consider a charge for those who 13 years after the rules have changed, still do not know that, and put in “complaints”. I am sure my personal feelings won’t ever materialize in a rule but seriously, I cannot imagine that any attorney could still not know that advertising is allowed, and that includes billboards or TV adverts, or radio slots (before a complaint arrives about that next) and the real question in a month when Media 24 has for example, just admitted its circulation figures were not correct and actually much lower than stated, in some cases over 40% lower than the audience advertisers actually thought they were paying for, is whether or not that advertising is worth it. Do you watch TV adverts? Do you read print adverts? Advertising was much bigger 50 years ago than it is now, and it does not seem to have the same results as it once did. To me, it’s more a case of the profession being too late – being allowed to advertise at a time when people increasingly change channels in ad breaks (and most women will testify to the danger of leaving a man in control of the remote control), turn pages and don’t want to suffer the interruptions of adverts. On the other hand, it is good thing we no longer have to measure the size of our lettering of our firm!
More importantly, taking into consideration Competition Act concerns, as well as a desire to modernize the rules, the Law Society appointed two attorneys from prominent commercial law firms to consider its rules. Their initial draft has been supplied to Councillors and will form the subject of some debate and consideration. Proposals will no doubt be put before members in the near future and it is really a time to consider, apply one’s mind and make input. You cannot criticize if you make no input. Have a say, and have it rejected by others, and you may grumble, but you really do need to make an effort to play an active role in the profession if you want it to be strong, but diverse. What is clear, however, going forward, is that the rules especially when it comes to marketing and canvassing of new clients are going to change considerably from those that we have now. That’s a good thing and about time and it’s something we need to apply our minds to every year. We can’t have static rules in these ever changing modern times and while we need to protect and uphold the profession, we also need to ensure we are competitive not only locally, but globally. Very few attorneys in South Africa for example, know that the first law firm has already listed on a stock exchange – a personal injury firm in Australia. So, developments are most definitely not static internationally and the Law Society of England and Wales for example, has taken a number of bold steps forward recently also.
A very interesting area, and one on which I will address a future article is the entire question of termination of mandates –and what documents of any you must hand over, your lien over papers and those that your client supplied you with (the rule here recently changed to reflect the case law) and what constitutes “reasonable adequate security”. I am not promising all the answers, but certainly, a number of thoughts on the various issues and a summary of the present situation. If you have ethical issues that interest or concern you, address them to the Rules & Ethics Committee of the Law Society and we will attend to them.
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Posted by Michael de Broglio on Sunday 30-Sep-07
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