The Council of the South Sudan Bar Association on Thursday announced that 83 lawyers have lost their practicing licenses in an ongoing registration aimed at reorganizing the lawyers’ body.
Addressing a press conference in Juba, Advocate Arop Malueth Manoon, the President of the South Sudan Bar Association, said the deregistered lawyers were not in conformity with the set standards, including lack of requisite academic qualifications, among others.
“For the members that were licensed illegally, we have revoked their licenses. We also revoked the licenses of other members who were licensed because they had Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from unrecognized universities because Section 12 of the Advocates Act requires an LLB to be from a recognized university,” he explained. “Any member whose license was revoked and insists on practicing will violate Section 44 of the Advocates Act because he has no valid license to render legal services to the public. A member who will be found to be in practice after his license is revoked will face legal action.”
Malueth added: “There are other members who have licenses but their files are missing because the total number of files we have received from the Bar Administration is 2,298. So, some members hold licenses but they do not have files in the Bar Association.”
He further stated that some members lost their licenses due to a lack of proper registration and that licenses issued by the former bar associations are now considered null and void by the court.
“Some of them were registered by illegal bodies because there was a ruling by the Supreme Court which dissolved all the previous bar associations,” he elucidated. “We have given them one month to comply and if they fail, the council will decide their fate because in this profession, as I said earlier, the most important requirement is to have an LLB.”
For his part, Advocate Thomas Jada James, Secretary of the Bar Council, said they published a draft advocates roll which generated several concerns.
“Following the committee`s report on the vetting and harmonization of the advocate’s roll which was endorsed and adopted during the Bar Association meeting on 31 January, all files received from the former Bar Administration were critically reviewed to ensure compliance with Section 12 of the Advocates Act 2013 and were harmonized to create a unified roll,” he enlightened.
Jada urged all advocates to crosscheck their names on the draft advocates roll on the Bar Association’s notice board at the headquarters, the Judiciary, and the Bar Association’s online portal. He said all advocates whose names were left out or missing are requested to submit a written complaint to the chairperson of the Bar Council, attaching evidence and all the missing documents for their names to be included on the roll.
According to the Bar Association, the qualification for the licensing of advocates includes, an LLB Certificate from a recognized university, practiced in a registered law firm for at least a year, and passing a written test set by the Bar Association.
The Bar Association also said it has a special process for a foreigner to be licensed to handle a particular case.