I had the privilege to attend the 14th Annual SASLAW Conference in Port Elizabeth this past week-end and in a collegial setting benefit from the insights of among other Justices Dunstan Mlambo and Basheer Wagley, Professors Halton Cheadle and Paul Benjamin, and Nerine Kahn, on the Labour Relations Act and the operations of the CCMA and the Labour Court. I shared a panel with Justice Edwin Molahlehi, judge of the Labour Court, and Aadil Patel, director at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, discussing the SASLAW/ProBono.Org Labour Court Project. There was general agreement that the benefits of this Project are many-fold: attorneys get to do pro bono work within their area of expertise; clients receive specialist advice which brings certainty to their matter; the court roll is eased; it is a great training ground for candidate attorneys who accompany their principles; advocates can be involved via ProBono.Org; straightforward matters can be dispensed with; and it is a source of potentially high impact, precedent setting matters.

The Conference was co-sponsored by Tokiso Dispute Settlement, who we have a working relationship with.