South Africa's legal profession still bears the imprint of an exclusionary past and the numbers are proof of that, the Legal Practice Council (LPC) has told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, defending the Legal Sector Code (LSC).
LPC is one of the parties opposing the application by the country's four top law firms, who are asking the court to overturn the sector-specific. B-BBEE framework For the South African legal profession to be gazetted by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, in September 2024.
The application was brought by Dennis (formerly Norton Rose Fulbright), Bowmans, Weber Wentzel & Werxmans.
The LPC said in court papers that by the applicants' own admission, the country's largest commercial firms are approximately 72% white-owned.
According to 2025 data of LPC, there are 34,967 lawyers. Of these, 13,398 are African, 1,923 Colored and 3,266 Indian. The total number of black lawyers is 18,587, i.e. 53.16% of the lawyers. In terms of gender, LPC figures show that there are 18,971 males and 15,996 females in 2025.
The LPC critically stated that black women are extremely under-represented across all racial categories. There are only 5,172 black women lawyers in the country. This means that the share of black women in the entire profession is only 15.2%.
The LPC said white businesses, particularly men, dominate the legal profession in positions of ownership, influence and economic power.
It said these figures show that the common B-BBEE codes are grossly inadequate. Despite the Level 1B-BBEE rating, the applicant firms retain significant ownership and leadership.
According to the LPC, the only plausible explanation for this contradiction is that the generic code has set the bar too low, allowing companies to achieve higher compliance levels without making meaningful changes.
The Johannesburg Society of Advocates (JSA), which has joined the legal proceedings as a friend of the court and is neutral in the legal challenge, also painted a picture of a bleak transition.
Kate Hofmeyr, a lawyer working for the JSA, explained how the Code, if implemented, could affect lawyers, particularly through incentive changes to briefing patterns.
The JSA is the largest bar in South Africa with over 1,200 members. They are all subject to the referral system, which means they can only accept briefs from lawyers (with limited exceptions). it The unique structural feature of the profession is important implications for change Effort and access to work opportunities, he said.
Hofmeyr pointed out that there have been demographic changes in JSA's membership over the past three decades. By the end of 2025, 55% of JSA members are black, and 39% are women.
“However, these figures belie the stubborn inequalities that persist at the Bar, as evidenced by the high attrition rates at the senior lawyer level and among the juniors,” she said.
Of the 238 senior lawyers in the JSA at the end of 2025, 171 were white, of whom 148 were white men. There were only 45 black silks, of which 37 were men. There were only eight black African women senior lawyers.
Attrition statistics show that black juniors are leaving the bar in greater numbers. In the last five years, 406 junior lawyers (with more than one year seniority) left the JSA. Of these, 272 were black junior lawyers; Out of which 108 were black women junior lawyers.
The attrition rate among juniors in the practice's first four years was particularly high, with 142 juniors leaving between 2020 and 2025, 85% of whom were black juniors.
Hofmeyr said JSA has adopted several internal initiatives to promote change and boost retention rates among its members.
“However, there are limits to what JSAs can achieve in the referral profession, where lawyers rely almost entirely on solicitors for work.”
He told the court that these facts provide the background against which the objectives of the Code must be evaluated.
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