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Been busy this evening just preparing a brochure for the JAA and I thought I would include an extract or two: The Johannesburg Attorneys Association was formed in response to the Council of the Law Society of the Transvaal, in 1943, announcing an amendment to the voting procedures for the election of its members, with a circular advising people how to vote and the Council's subsequent treatment of a Pretoria attorney. This caused an outcry amongst Johannesburg attorneys and a meeting was convened and the Association formed by approximately 60 attorneys. Membership grew quickly particularly given that, quite unusually for the time, the Association did not at any time in its history, record racial or other personal details of its members, but rather encouraged all to join.
The Association history is to be found on our website at www.jaa.org.za. The history records events such as the reaction of the Johannesburg Attorneys Association after the Council of the then Law Society invited the Minister of Justice, Mr J. Kruger, to address its annual general meeting shortly after he had remarked, with respect to the death of Steve Biko that it left him cold . When the Johannesburg Attorneys Association first asked the Council of the Law Society to withdraw the invitation to the Minister, and when the Council refused to do so, it then requested the Law Society Council member who was to have chaired the conference, who was also a member of the Johannesburg Attorneys Association, to resign as Chairperson.
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