The Legal Sector Charter Council issued Clarification Notice CN01 of 2005 on 30 June 2025. The Clarification Notice is issued in accordance with the provisions of par 13.6.2 of the Legal Sector Code and contains miscellaneous clarifications.
To access the Clarification Notice, CLICK HERE.
Some key clarifications are summarised below.
- The management control measurement categories for board, executive-, senior-, middle- and junior management includes only legal practitioners. Non-legal practitioners are all measured under the support staff measurement category. This means that even the head of finance, for example, who might be senior management according to the Employment Equity Act categories, will still be counted under “support staff – other” and NOT senior management.
- The Economically Active Population (EAP) target methodology does not apply to the board of directors but does apply to executive management and all lower management levels.
- The Legal Sector Code is applicable for financial years commencing on or after 20 September 2024, the date that the Legal Sector Code was gazetted. This means that entities with a financial year end up to 31 August 2025 may be measured on the Generic Codes.
- The target changes coincide with the commencement of the respective measurement periods, i.e. year one targets will be applicable to the measured entity’s first year of being measured on the Legal Sector Code, year 2 targets on the second year of it being measured on the Legal Sector Code.
- New entrants are automatically at the minimum level 4 and not the confusing repetition stating they are level 5.
- If it is not specifically stated, then training does not need to be accredited for the cost to be considered legitimate.
- References to the one-month skills vacation work (for attorneys), can be split into different periods so long as it is in the same measurement period.
- The Legal Sector Transformation Fund is established and is open for deposits.
