Applications for admission as Advocate and the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014

Amended interim final court order in the above matter which was granted on 13/02/2019.

In the above matter the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Local Division Johannesburg, ordered that:

1. Any person who applied for admission to practice as an advocate or as an attorney whose application was pending on 1 November 2018, is entitled to invoke the provisions of section 115 of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014, in order, thereby, to rely on the provisions of the Admission of Advocates Act 74 of 1964 or the provisions of the Attorneys Act 53 of 1979, to be admitted to practice as a legal practitioner, in terms of section 24 of the Legal Practice Act.
2. The applications of ten applicants in these proceedings shall be enrolled on a Special Motion Roll of this court on 21 February 2019 for consideration at 09h30 by a court compromising Sutherland and Modiba JJ.

All practitioners (attorneys and advocates) who applied for admission by 31 October 2018 can proceed to have their applications heard under the provisions of the legislation regulating attorneys and advocates prior to the LPA. Judgment in respect of the remaining issues dealt with in the matter has been reserved. The judgment does not assist candidate attorneys who had to re-write board examinations, the results for which were only released in December 2018 (who would have been eligible for admission by 31 October 2018 but for the compulsory re-write).