Judge finds in favour of LLB degree

THE career prospects for law students at accredited Private Higher Education Institutions changed for the better after Pietermaritzburg High Court Acting Judge Carol Sibiya found that students currently studying towards an LLB degree at Varsity College were as qualified to enter the legal profession after graduation as students at public universities.

In passing judgment, Sibiya declared section 26 (1) (a) of the Legal Practice Act (LPA) constitutionally invalid as it only allowed LLB graduates from public universities to enter the profession and precluded students from private institutions from doing so.

The ruling, to be ratified by the Constitutional Court, is suspended for a year in order to give the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development an opportunity to change the problematic sections of the act.

The application, brought by The Independent Institute of Education, of which Varsity College is a brand, came after a student was turned away by the KZN Law Society.

“The Law Society’s response was to say that only graduates from ‘universities’ could be permitted to become candidate attorneys and therefore the IIE’s qualification would not be recognised for this purpose.”

Sibiya could find no rational basis for differentiating between persons with an LLB degree, particularly given that the Council for Higher Education (CHE), the highest educational authority in the land, confirmed that there was no difference in the quality and outcomes of the IIE’s four-year LLB and that of public universities.

The judgment brings to an end the anxiety of more than 400 law students, the IIE said.

“We were always confident of our position,” said the Independent Institute of Education director Felicity Coughlan.

“However, the uncertainty that existed in the law created a great deal of unnecessary consternation for our students and their parents. The issue has its roots in the old Attorney’s Act of 1979. When the new LPA was promulgated the offending clauses were merely carried through when the word ‘university’ ought to have been updated to read ‘Higher Education Institution’.”

The IIE’s Varsity College Managing Director, Louise Wiseman, said: “Our graduating students will be able to apply with confidence to any law society, to be admitted as candidate attorneys anywhere in South Africa.”

A former Varsity College law student said while the ruling was good, it did not make much difference when it came to job prospects.

“The big firms only consider you if you come from Wits, Stellenbosch and UCT, even if you have better marks. They do not even look at your CV.”