Pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar

WHAT IS PUPILLAGE?

Pupillage at the JSA is a one-year period of full-time professional training that leads to admission to full membership of the JSA.

The training involves –

1. A series of lectures and written exercises that leads to nationally organised examinations. This component of the training provides you with the basic knowledge of legal procedure and ethics that you will need to start out as an advocate. It also provides you with the basic legal writing skills you will need to draft court documents, and other documents such as opinions, memoranda and advices on evidence.
2. Advocacy Training. This is a specialised course of practical training on how to conduct yourself in court, how to lead and cross-examine witnesses, how to make oral submissions to Judges at first instance in an action or motion, and to Judges hearing appeals. Each of these different kinds of oral advocacy is a skill in itself, and the first step to practising that skill effectively is to undertake the specialised training programme the JSA provides.
3. Participation in the real-life practice of your pupil mentor and other advocates already in practice at the JSA. Each pupil has a mentor. The mentor is an advocate in full time practice at the JSA. A pupil assists their mentor, and, with the permission of their mentor, other practising advocates by, for example, drafting legal documents, discussing litigation strategy, attending and participating in consultations with attorneys and clients, and, of course, going to court. Your mentor may also in due course allow you to stand up in court and make submissions under their supervision (provided you are admitted and enrolled as an advocate). All of this experience is essential to understanding what it is like to be an advocate.
4. Community Service. The LPA requires all candidate legal practitioners (including pupils) to do community service. The Minister of Justice has not yet promulgated the regulations necessary to give content to this requirement, but the JSA may require its pupils to do a form of community service during pupillage before they can be admitted as full members. Community service will likely involve giving legal advice to members of the public who cannot generally afford to pay for legal representation. If and when implemented, you will do community service under the supervision of a full member of the JSA, or a person who the JSA has agreed can provide community service opportunities to pupils.

Being a pupil at the JSA accordingly requires you to be well-organised and able to acquire and practise a wide range of different skills. There will often be high volumes of work to be completed in relatively short periods of time. Before applying for pupillage, you should carefully consider whether you will be able to perform the volumes of work and develop the kinds of skills that will be required of you. If you are confident that you can meet the challenges of pupillage, and – even better – if you find the prospect of pupillage exciting, then we would like to receive your application.

More detail on these topics is provided below under the heading “During pupillage”.

ADMISSION AND ENROLMENT AS AN ADVOCATE

During pupillage, you will be expected to ensure that you are admitted as a legal practitioner and enrolled as an advocate as soon as you are eligible to do so. Pupillage does not automatically lead to admission and enrolment as an advocate, but you will not be able to become a full member of the JSA unless you are admitted and enrolled as an advocate.

Because of recent changes in the law, the procedure you are required to follow to become admitted and enrolled as an advocate depends on your status at the point when you commence pupillage.

There are at least four categories of pupils.

1. Pupils who are already admitted under the Admission of Advocates Act 74 of 1964 (Admission of Advocates Act)

Some applicants for pupillage will already have been admitted as advocates under the (now repealed) Admission of Advocates Act. These applicants are deemed to be admitted as legal practitioners and enrolled as advocates in terms of section 114 of the LPA. They need take no further steps to gain admission. Once they complete all the requirements of pupillage, they will become full members of the JSA.

2. Pupils who qualified, in principle, to be admitted in terms of the Admission of Advocates Act as at 31 October 2018

These applicants for pupillage are entitled to be admitted as advocates in terms of sections 24 and 115 of the LPA, read with section 3 of the Admission of Advocates Act.

As a general rule, if, on 31 October 2018, you met all of the requirements to become an advocate set out in section 3 of the Admission of Advocates Act, then you may apply to the High Court to be admitted and enrolled as an advocate as if the Admission of Advocates Act were still in force.

The requirements for admission under section 3 of the Admission of Advocates Act are set out in this document.

The Admission of Advocates Act can be found here Admission-of-Advocates-Act.

3. Pupils who are attorneys

Applicants for pupillage who:

• were attorneys on 31 October 2018; or
• qualified, in principle, to be admitted as advocates on 31 October 2018, but who subsequently became attorneys,

also qualify to be admitted as advocates in terms of the transitional provisions of the LPA. They must bring an application to the High Court for an order removing them from the roll of attorneys, admitting them as legal practitioners, and directing the Legal Practice Council (“LPC”) to enrol them as advocates.

Applicants who did not qualify, in principle, to become advocates on 31 October 2018, and who were subsequently admitted as legal practitioners under the LPA, and enrolled as attorneys, must apply to the LPC to convert their enrolment to that of an advocate in terms of section 32 of the LPA, read with Rule 30 of the South African LPC Rules. The requirements for such an application are set out in Rule 30 of the LPC Rules. The JSA’s pupillage programme is structured so as to enable these pupils to comply with the advanced advocacy requirements for conversion.

The LPC Rules can be found here Legal-Practice-Rules.

4. Pupils who did not meet the requirements of section 3 of the Admission of Advocates Act on 31 October 2018, and who are not attorneys

These applicants for pupillage must comply with all of the operative requirements of sections 24, 26 and 29 of the LPA. They must sign and lodge a practical vocational training contract with the LPC. They will only be able to apply for admission and enrolment as an advocate at the end of pupillage – i.e. once the 12-month period stipulated in their contract has expired – and once they can demonstrate that they have met all of the other requirements set out in the LPA.

Once they are admitted as advocates, and provided that they have met all of the requirements for admission to the JSA, they will become full members of the JSA as well. The JSA’s pupillage programme is structured so as to enable these pupils to comply with all the requirements of the LPA.

The JSA will, at the end of pupillage, support the admission and enrolment of all pupils who have met all of the requirements of pupillage, and who are otherwise fit and proper to be admitted to the JSA.

Copies of the LPA, the LPC Rules, and the decision of the Gauteng High Court in Ex Parte Goosen 2019 (3) SA 489 (GJ), which dealt with the impact of the LPA on the admission and enrolment of advocates, can be found here:

DURING PUPILLAGE

As a pupil member at the Johannesburg Bar you will be introduced to a number of practices, conventions, courtesies and procedures with which it is important that you quickly become familiar. In this regard your pupil mentor will guide you. In addition, the various members of the Bar Council who discharge particular duties in regard to professional matters, pupillage matters, housing of new members, the charging of fees, and so on, are available to you at all reasonable hours in regard to any enquiries that you may have.

You will be furnished with a memorandum setting out the curriculum and related information concerning the pupillage programme. It is important that you study the documentation carefully and adhere to the requirements which are set out therein.

Each pupil is required to keep a written up-to-date diary of their activities and work performed during pupillage. This diary should contain meaningful entries in regard to when, where and what work was done, and whether it was performed with your pupil mentor or with another member of the Bar. In particular, where you have performed actively a role in the preparation or the conduct in the matter, this fact should be recorded. From time to time pupils will be invited to meet with members of the Pupillage Committee to discuss details of the work which they have done and the experience which they are getting in the course of their pupillage.

From the commencement of your pupillage you are immediately entitled to the full use of the Bar Libraries situated in Pitje Group, Fabcos House, in the CBD and in The Chambers in Sandton. You ought as soon as possible to introduce yourself to the librarians. They will arrange a tour to show you around the libraries and will indicate to you what is available for your use. As most pupils do not possess libraries of their own, it is important for you to become familiar with the layout and content of both libraries so that they may be used by you when you begin practice quickly and efficiently. As you will from time to time require assistance from the librarians, it is also in your own interests to get to know them and to establish a rapport with them.

An important matter that will require your attention when you commence practice is access to legal resources. Nowadays many resources are available electronically, but much of that is by subscription. It is advisable for you to make prudent decisions regarding building up your own library of electronic resources and physical volumes. It is advisable to become familiar with what textbooks and other resources exist on the various legal subjects, and to become familiar with the most recent editions available in respect of textbooks, before you commit to buying them or subscribing to electronic resources.

We do not use “Adv”, “Mr” or “Mrs” or any other titles in addressing each other as colleagues. The custom is to address one another by surname or first name without regard to seniority. It is a tradition of the Bar that new members should make themselves known to existing members by calling at their chambers and introducing themselves, subject to observing all appropriate safety protocols in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic. As the Bar has grown substantially in recent years, this rule of courtesy is nowadays limited to making it obligatory for new members to introduce themselves to every Silk at the Bar, to every member of the group in which they are serving pupillage, and to each member of the Bar Council. A list of the current office bearers can be obtained from the administrative offices. It is in your own interests to avoid anonymity whilst at the Bar and the importance of observing this tradition cannot be overstated. In addition to the introductions referred to above, you are encouraged to make an effort to introduce yourself to other members of the Bar, not least of all your peers in the junior ranks of the Bar, with whom you are likely in your early years to have more to do and from whom you are likely to learn a great deal.

You will find it most beneficial to digest the experiences that you have during pupillage, and systematically prepare for your examinations, by sharing these tasks with other pupils in a study group. You are encouraged to form study groups in small numbers of at least three and at the most five members. It is also an advantage to form a group with individuals who have a different background to yours, and different experiences, so that each can benefit from the different perspectives which members of the study group can bring to bear.

An important advantage that you can gain for yourself during pupillage is to build up a set of precedents, that is to say examples of well-drawn pleadings, affidavits, opinions, advices on evidence, notices of motion, petitions, heads of argument, etc. You should actively seek to do so. It is advisable to regard nothing as so simple or elementary that it would not be worth taking a sample precedent of it, including something so simple as a notice of set down. Store these in a systematic manner after a fashion that suits your way of thinking, and it will be of great assistance to you for some time.

It should always be remembered that the benefit to be obtained from the period of pupillage is the body of knowledge that you have at the end of it. It will also be a golden period in your career at the Bar, a time during which you are not expected to know much or even anything, and therefore cannot be embarrassed by asking simple questions. You are encouraged to question, to seek confirmation and to persist in doing so until you are quite satisfied that you fully understand any matter of concern to you. The more you ask during pupillage, the less anxiety you will experience when you write the examinations or commence practice.

It is important not to spend your pupillage year as a spectator. You must experience what goes into producing pleadings, opinions, advices on evidence and the like. You will find out more about what you do not know by attempting the job yourself than by watching it done well by someone else. When you know what you are uncertain of, you will know what you need to learn.

During the course of the work that you will be requested to perform alongside your pupil mentor or another member of the Bar, opportunities will arise to stand up and speak in Court. You are encouraged to take every possible advantage of these opportunities. An important objective of pupillage is to introduce new members not only to the art of Court craft, but to put them at ease when practising it. Any reticence which you might have about speaking in public, or addressing a Judge, or articulating unfamiliar thoughts, can be overcome incrementally by taking every opportunity to address the Court.

You should remember that one of the objectives of pupillage is to assist you to form a systematic approach to the practice of law. Every practitioner has their own approach and you should, from the earliest time, begin to consciously think about developing your own approach. A very important aspect of efficient legal practice is the ability to organise and access information quickly and efficiently. You should have a full understanding of this requirement and develop clear thinking to suit your own style in regard to how it is to be done.

Throughout the period of your pupillage you are free to contact any member of the Pupillage Committee to discuss any matter of concern to yourself. The members of the Pupillage Committee will expect you to call on them from time to time and you are encouraged to make full use of the opportunity to discuss your pupillage with them.

BEGINNING PRACTICE

Immediately after being informed of successfully passing the Bar Examination, it will be necessary for you to take up approved chambers. Each group has its own selection processes and requirements. Vacancies in groups are advertised from time to time on the notice boards of the various groups at the Bar. It has become customary to furnish the group to whom such an application is made with a curriculum vitae and two or three letters of reference. You should, however, appreciate that personal acquaintance with the members of a group weighs more importantly with most members of the Bar than a lengthy curriculum vitae from a virtual stranger.

Your relationship with your pupil mentor does not terminate at the end of your pupillage and it is traditional that a collegial relationship continues indefinitely thereafter. Notwithstanding having successfully passed through pupillage, you will doubtless come upon many questions to which you may be uncertain of answers, and it is the convention that you may approach your mentor or any other member of the Bar with whom you are acquainted for assistance with difficulties. You should, however, bear in mind that it is not considered good form to approach either your pupil mentor or another member of the Bar with a problem before having made some earnest effort to solve the problem yourself and at least to have some ideas upon how the problem should be solved.

As you will now be in a position to start charging fees for the work you have done, it is important that you have a proper understanding of how to charge a reasonable fee. If you are in doubt as to how to approach the matter, you are encouraged to approach any one or more of the members of the Fees Committee for guidance in this regard.

From time to time you may be faced with uncertainty as to how to conduct yourself in a particular situation. Should you need guidance in regard to whether or not conduct which you are contemplating is considered as ethical or professional, the members of the Professional Committee are available to you for guidance in this regard.

The Johannesburg Bar is a collegial society which welcomes and encourages participation. You are encouraged to make use of the facilities of the Bar and to make yourself at home and to be comfortable with colleagues. You will find that the more you participate in the affairs of the Bar and contribute to its well-being, the more rewarding the membership of the Bar will be to you.