Devil shows his cards

MPs pondering the regulation of the legal profession were left reaching for their rosaries recently when it emerged at a meeting of parliament’s justice and constitutional development committee that the General Council of the Bar, which is fighting for its right to regulate the profession, provides in clause 4.26 of its rules that an advocate may pay the devil as long as he or she does not enter into a partnership with him.

“It is essential that practising advocates should retain their professional independence. Any system of payment which converts a devil’s services into employment by the members requesting such services is undesirable,” Devil’s Advocate (DA) MP Dene Smuts read straightfaced from the current council rule book.

“It is not improper for the member requesting such services to show his or her appreciation therefore in tangible form, nor for the member and the devil to enter into an agreement that governs the rate of remuneration of the devil for the particular task assigned, provided such an arrangement does not convert into an employment relationship or one of or approximating partnership.”

(Oxford Dictionary of Law: devil 1. n. A junior member of the bar who does work . . . for a more senior barrister under an informal arrangement between them and without reference to the senior’s instructing solicitor.)