Black Business Council accuses top law firms of resisting transformation over Legal Sector Code challenge
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The Black Business Council (BBC) has thrown its weight behind the Legal Sector Code of Good Practice (LSC), which is at the centre of a legal challenge brought by several of South Africa’s largest corporate law firms. The dispute has reignited debate over how transformation in the legal profession should be implemented after the introduction of the revised LSC under the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) Act in September 2024. The code introduces sector-specific transformation requirements for legal practitioners, including ownership targets, procurement obligations and revised scoring mechanisms aimed at reshaping the demographics of the legal profession. The BBC said it fully supported the LSC and had aligned itself with organisations defending it in the matter under way in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, including the Black Lawyers Association, Black Conveyancers Association, National Association of Democratic Lawyers, Advocates for Transformation, African Legal Professionals Association, Basadi Ba Molao Education and Training Services, the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa, the South African Women Lawyers Association and the Legal Practice Council, as well as the departments of trade, industry and competition and justice and constitutional development. The legal challenge involves Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans, which have intervened in the legal proceedings initiated by Deneys, formerly Norton Rose Fulbright, to review the LSC. The firms say they support transformation in the legal sector but argue that aspects of the framework are impractical, structurally flawed and could undermine long-term empowerment objectives. The trade union, Solidarity, is also opposing the LSC in a separate case that is being heard at the same time. In a recent joint statement, Bowmans, Webber Wentzel and Werksmans, said a sector-specific code must be “workable and sustainable” and based on sound e