- – twenty-eight attorneys fail to renew licences
Twenty-eight attorneys have failed to renew their practising licences, while three lawyers have been struck off the roll of attorneys this year, this according to a noticed issued this week by the Council of the Law Society of Botswana.
Furthermore, five law firms have been placed under curatorship for failure to manage their affairs and one attorney has been declared by the High Court legally incapable of managing their affairs.
The Law Society of Botswana has since warned the public to desist from engaging the mentioned non-complaint lawyers and lawyer firms, as they are no longer members of the Society.
“Members of the public who engage or continue to deal with them are doing so at their own risk and do not have the recourse of the Law Society,” read the notice.
According to rules and regulations of the Law Society, every legal practitioner (Advocate, Attorney, Conveyancer and Notary Public} must hold a valid Practicing certificate for the year in order for them to practice. Practitioners of the legal profession are required to renew their licences yearly by the end of December.
Lawyers’ firms and attorneys become non complaint or have their licences revoked for misconduct, misappropriation of trust funds and failure to submit yearly audited accounts.
The Law Society during its annual general meeting took a decision to publish the names of the non-compliant attorneys every year at the Opening of the Legal year and prohibit them from practicing as legal representatives.
“Having received on the 15 May 2026, the list of attorneys who hold practising certificates for the year 2026 from the Administration of Justice, members are informed that as at 02 June 2026, the affected legal practitioners, do not hold current legal practicing certificates and are therefore not entitled to practice. They are further not members of the Law Society of Botswana as they do not hold valid practicing certificates,” read the Law Society of Botswana warned.
