Page 21 - Transformation Report 2018/2019

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11. SUPPORT T O
BLACK LEGAL SERVICE 12. SUPPORT T O
PROVIDERS BLACK ADVOCA TES

Supporting the development of black-owned legal Heeding the call of the Law Society of South Africa (as it
service providers such as sheriffs, tracing agents, law then was) for a greater commitment by law firms to the
firms etc. is also a prerogative of the Group as it takes briefing of advocates, the Group made a decision to
cognisance of the need and responsibility to contribute support the briefing of black advocates and create an
to the transformation of the wider legal profession and internal register of recommended advocates which can
industry. be used by member firms to find and brief black male
and female counsel throughout the various advocate
This focus has shown a continual increase over the bars across the country.
last few years, with nearly R57 million being spent
on black-owned legal service providers in 2018 and The initiative has been positively received by member
R53 million in 2019, evidencing the support of the Group firms, with over R7 million in briefs being recorded over the
to its wider transformation commitments. period of 2018 and 2019 to black advocates of which
just over R5 million was to black male counsel and the
remainder to black female counsel.

Supporting black-owned legal With many member firms not directly briefing counsel
service providers has shown a due to their rural status, it represents a good start to a
continual increase over the last determined effort by the Group to up its briefing patterns
few years and support of black legal counsel.

13. PROCUREMENT

Without a doubt, the Procurement element has become member firms. Accordingly, GroupServe (Pty) Ltd was
a big role player in enabling enterprises to achieve higher established to centralise Group procurement and focus
BEE levels through BEE verification. on unlocking value, improving preferential procurement
and to develop and support black suppliers and service
Law firms are not spared and are similarly pressed to providers to the Group through the promise of bulk work
increase their BEE levels and in turn ensure that their and volume.
procurement expenditure on black suppliers and service
providers is maximised. The impact of these efforts and the focus on maximising
member firm procurement has been significant with
Given the largely homogenous nature of law firm recognised Group procurement expenditure in 2018
procurement in the Group it made commercial sense amounting to R165 million and increasing to nearly R180
to centralise such procurement and use the economies million in 2019.
of scale to negotiate better rates, service and value for

Group Transformation Report for 2018/19