LEGAL PRACTICE 210

ASSIGNMENT
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Bob Mabunda is a Director in a large corporate law firm. Apart from practicing as an attorney,
Bob also owns a building company. The building company demands a lot of his time and he
struggles to look after his client’s matters at the law firm. He therefore appoints Emma Grace, a newly
admitted attorney, as his professional assistant (PA) at the law firm. Bob gives her a fee target to reach
each month. In order to meet her fee target, she had to bill clients for a certain number of hours per
day. The pressure to meet her fee target was immense. At the end of each day, she had to submit her
time sheet to Bob. At the end of each week, a meeting with all the PA’s and the Directors would be
called. A power point presentation is used to show the total hours billed per PA, in order from top to
bottom. The top 5 PA’s could then stay for lunch in the boardroom, while the others were expected to
leave immediately.

Emma Grace obtained her LLB degree with distinction and her family is immensely proud of her. She
had always dreamed of being a lawyer and cannot believe her good fortune in being employed in a
major firm, specializing in high profile legal matters. She has had some problems adjusting to the
corporate culture, which she experiences as being very profit driven and ruthless.

Emma Grace does not have any clients of her own. She is allocated work by Bob. She is often asked to
do non-billable work for Bob – like researching a matter which he is going to charge for, or making tea,
or even going on personal errands for him. While she is making efforts to build up her own reputation,
and thus to attract a client base of her own, this is a slow process.

She consistently falls short of her target fees, and is feeling increasingly despondent about it. She has
been called to meetings at which she has been asked to explain her poor performance. In desperation,
she confides in another PA, who tells her that it is common practice for the PA’s to inflate their billable
hours with corporate clients, because ‘they can afford it’, and because, he says, one always forgets to
bill for everything, so this ‘evens it out.’

Feeling conflicted, she asks Bob for advice – Bob says to her ‘It is unethical to pad your bill.’ Then, he
winks at her and says “I am surprised you didn’t catch on months ago! Off the record, all of us do it –
and we’ve never had a complaint from a client yet!” In fact, he says, it’s really an industry custom, all
law firms do it. Emma expresses concern that this might jeopardise her career in the future. Bob says
the only way it could do so is if she reported it. He told her that the firm was well established, and that
they would deny it was a general practice to inflate bills, and would institute disciplinary action against
her for ‘bringing the firm into disrepute’ if she did so.

Bob then takes the file she is working on – and laughs. He says this client is so wealthy, he could be
charged triple the normal rate and not even notice. He looks at her time sheets and add: “If you were
to add 25% to your billable hours for this client alone, you would not only make your budget, but
would be in the top 5 fee-earning PA’s.” He smiles at her, and tells her she has enormous potential,
and that he hopes she won’t waste the opportunity that she has been given in life.

In his capacity as attorney, Bob often becomes involved in giving advice to his clients on how to invest
their funds that often have their origin in the sale of a major asset or an inheritance from a deceased
relative. Bob’s building company on the other hand is not doing too well and urgently needs a cash
injection in order to survive.

One day, one of Bob’s clients, Joe Sly, consults him about an investment of R1 million. Should he put
it into an offshore bank account or buy some shares instead? Bob has made various investments on
behalf of Joe over the years. Bob is aware of the fact that Joe is allegedly the kingpin of a criminal
syndicate. Bob, seeing a good opportunity to get his building company out of its financial mess,
suggests to Joe that he should lend him the money personally for investment in his building company
at one percent above prime rate.
The deal is done, but alas, notwithstanding this substantial cash injection, Bob’s building company goes
under, and liquidation proceedings are commenced. A few months later, Joe again calls on Bob to
recall his loan, only to be informed that the building company has gone into liquidation and that the
R1 million are lost.

Some 5 years later Bob’s secretary advises that a Mrs Belinda Sly has made an appointment to see him
and that she is sitting in his waiting room. When Bob invites her to join him in his office, it turns out
that Belinda is the wife of Joe Sly and that Belinda wishes to divorce Joe.

She tells Bob that Joe has always spoken very highly of him (that is most certainly before he lost the
R1 million) and she feels that Bob is the right person to act for her and that she is sure he will be able
to secure her a good settlement. Bob accepts the instruction.

Write an essay on whether Bob violated any standards of professional ethics

and responsibility.

Submission Date: Thursday 18 May 2023 BETWEEN 09H00 - 12H00

at the office of Ms Sumaya Moosa Law Building 3-63, Procedural Law

✓ Format: Essay.
✓ Word count must be between 1000 - 1200 words. (Do not exceed the word
count).
✓ Referencing may be in text or in footnotes.
✓ Referencing is not included in the word count.
✓ A bibliography is required (not included in the word count).
✓ Please make use of headings where appropriate.
✓ You may consult any sources to support your arguments.