Pro bono - Making a difference through empowering communities

At Eversheds Sutherland, we're committed to giving back to our communities by making a positive impact in society. Our pro bono work is more than just a responsibility—it's a passion.

What is Pro bono?

Pro bono describes legal work undertaken by legal practitioners without remuneration as a public service. The key principle of pro bono services is that pro bono clients do not have to pay for the services rendered.

The purpose of undertaking pro bono work is to make access to justice available to all, particularly the most impoverished members of our society.

Legal practitioners’ duty to undertake pro bono services

Pro bono was regulated under the Rules for the Attorneys Profession under the Attorneys Act 53 of 1979 (Attorneys Act), which is the predecessor of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (LPA). Unlike its predecessor, the LPA makes reference to community service instead of pro bono.

One of the purposes of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 (LPA) is “to broaden access to justice by putting in place measures to provide for the rendering of community service by candidate legal practitioners and practicing legal practitioners.”

Furthermore, although community service is not defined in the the LPA, in terms of section 29(2) of the LPA, “Community service for the purposes of this section may include, but is not limited, to the following:

(a) Service in the State, approved by the Minister, in consultation with the Council;

(b) service at the South African Human Rights Commission;

(c) service, without any remuneration, as a judicial officer in the case of legal practitioners, including as a commissioner in the small claims courts;

(d) the provision of legal education and training on behalf of the Council, or on behalf of an academic institution or non-governmental organisation; or

(e) any other service which the candidate legal practitioner or the legal practitioner may want to perform, with the approval of the Minister.”

To cater for the lacuna created by the LPA, the Legal Practice Council (the Council) issued a notice to legal practitioners on 3 May 2019, advising that the Council had taken a policy decision that pro bono work would be regulated. This was followed by various engagements within the legal profession and on 11 August 2023 the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services (the Minister) published the Amendment of Regulations made under section 94(1) of the LPA (the Amended Regulations), which prescribed the new requirements for community service. The Amended Regulations initially came into operation on the date of publication, namely 11 August 2023.

The Amended Regulations define pro bono services as “legal services …, at no fee or expectation of compensation, and principally to benefit poor, underprivileged or marginalised persons or communities or the organisations that assist them.” They further state that any pro bono services will be recognized as community service.

After the Amended Regulations came into operation, the Council resolved that guidelines should be developed for legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners to understand their community service requirements and accordingly issued a Notice on 18 September 2023 advising that guidelines would be established to assist legal practitioners and candidate legal practitioners to comply with the Amended Regulations. According to the aforesaid Notice, the Council would make the guidelines available in due course and the operation of the Amended Regulations was postponed until the 1st January 2024.

On 5 December 2023, the Council issued another Notice notifying legal practitioners of a resolution to extend the date of the enforcement of the Amended Regulations from 1 January 2024 to a date that will be communicated once the guidelines have been developed.

On 17 April 2024, the Commission issued a further Notice advising that it had embarked on the development of guidelines to ensure compliance with the Amended Regulations and was still engaged in consultations with the Minister and relevant stakeholders to address the provisions of section 29(2) of the LPA. Attached to the Notice was the preliminary guidelines which the Commission required the legal profession to review and provide its written comments on by 20 May 2024. The final guidelines have not been promulgated, leaving the date of enforcement of the Amended Regulations remaining to be communicated by the Council as per its 5 December 2023 Notice.

Eversheds Sutherland pro bono services

Although the Amended Regulations make it compulsory for candidate legal practitioners and practicing legal practitioners to render community service, there is currently no legal obligation to render community service and/or pro bono services due to the Council’s extension date of the enforcement of the Amended Regulations. Despite the aforesaid Eversheds Sutherland continues rendering pro bono services as a public good.

Eversheds Sutherland pro bono clients

Over and above individual clients that we have and continue providing legal assistance to and within various areas of the law, the following are some of the clients that we have and continue rendering pro bono services to:

• Clients referred to the firm by the Council;
• We assisted a non-profit company (NPC) in recovering monies owed to them by an entity which they had entered into a service agreement with;
• We are providing legal advice to a Community Development Trust on their quest to holding some of the directors of their created company to account and restructuring their subsidiary projects;
• We assisted an NPC with drafting boiler plate clauses for their members’ production agreements. We further provided the said NPC with legal opinions relating to:
• their members’ matters against producers in relation to repeat fees which were due to them;
• the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of the selection process of a programme that their members are usually involved in and also tested it against the prescripts of section 36 of the consumer protection act which deals with promotional competitions;
• We conduct monthly law clinics with a non-profit organisation (NGO) based in Soweto whereby we assist various clients with their various legal matters;
• We have assisted another NGO based in Soweto, in recovering funds which were due to them as the result of various funding approvals from the Health And Welfare Sector Education And Training Authority’s (HWSETA);
• We provide legal advice to an NGO based in Alexandra, whenever they require one.
• We attend Probono.Org’s housing law clinics every Friday, whereby we provide legal advise to various clients. We have instituted legal proceedings in favour of various clients whereby we apply for reversal of fraudulently obtained title deeds, to ensure that the rightful owners have a safe place to call home;
• We continue attending SASLAW workshops whereby we assist individuals with their labour matters;
• We have maintained the firm’s association with Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) through Peter as one of its directors. Peter has been involved in various high profile cases on their behalf;
• We are assisting an NPC in lodging a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission in relation to the quality of Mathematics education in public schools;
• We have provided legal advice to an NGO in relation to its members’ maintenance fleet contracts involving government vehicles;
• We have instituted legal proceedings against various government departments on behalf of Uyinene Mrwetyana’s family in relation to their daughter’s rape and brutal murder by an employee of the post office;
• We believe in using our skills to uplift those in need and are proud to support initiatives that drive real change.

We believe in using our skills to uplift those in need and are proud to support initiatives that drive real change.