Zambia’s top court settles in-house counsel dispute

Zambia’s highest court has delivered an emphatic decision on the position of in-house counsel, holding that they may not take any other legal work while they have such employment. In addition, the court has roundly criticised the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) for its lax approach to upholding the existing rules on the issue – rules that the LAZ itself drew up to regulate employed legal practitioners. Carmel Rickard reports, in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, that the case that provoked the court to express itself so strongly concerns a legal practitioner who accepted a three-year post as board secretary to the Occupational Health and Safety Institute. However, on taking up the position he asked for a change to his terms of employment – so he could ‘continue practising law in his firm’. At the end of the three-year contract, the two sides became involved in litigation that has made its way to the Supreme Court where the judges have now underscored the ‘one job, not two’ principle for in-house counsel.