What is the relevance of the LSSA?
South Africa - De Rebus
I have written two editorials on the existence of the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) and the duties the organisation performs through its different departments, namely De Rebus, Legal Education and Development (LEAD), Professional Affairs and support services (communications, marketing, human resources and finance). The pertinent questions to consider are:
- Does the legal profession need the LSSA?
- Is there any relevance to the existence of the LSSA?
To answer these two questions, one only has to look at the gap that would be left in the profession should the LSSA cease to exist. For starters, the LSSA speaks nationally on behalf of the attorneys’ profession, through press releases and media interviews. If the LSSA does not exist, the profession would lose the link it has with the national media. The organisation also provides leadership and support to the profession through policy development and stakeholder relations. The stakeholder relationships the LSSA holds with many organisations has resulted in fruitful discussions that have been beneficial for the legal profession. If these relationships are lost, decades of institutional knowledge would be lost too.
De Rebus
Rule of law should not take a backseat in pandemic, survey finds
UK - LawGazette
Two thirds of UK citizens agree that curbs on freedoms put in place during the pandemic are rolled back afterwards, according to a major study on public attitudes to human rights commissioned by the legal professions to mark Justice Week 2021. 'People don’t expect the rule of law to take a backseat in a time of national emergency,' the leaders of three professional bodies commented. 'We don’t know when or how we will emerge from the eye of the Covid-19 storm, but as we do it is vital the many layers limiting rights and freedoms that have been put in place are peeled back.'
The research, carried out by the Law Society, the Bar Council and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, suggests widespread unease about the state of democracy in the UK. While three quarters of respondents said living in a democracy is important, fewer than half agreed our democracy is working well, less than one in five said democracy is getting better and a worrying 41% said it is getting harder to enforce rights.’
Law Gazette
Don’t be fooled! Customer service is not the same as customer experience.
UK - TodaysConveyancer
Recently some people in the industry have said to me that customer service is not relevant anymore, today apparently it’s all about the customer experience or ‘CX’ as it’s often termed – sounds much sexier doesn’t it?
“Yes the customer experience is important but the service your team deliver is what sets you apart from the competition”
However I would argue that customer service and customer experience are NOT the same thing. Customer experience is all about improving the customer journey. More often than not this is achieved by improving the online & digital experience through great tech, good examples of this would be Uber or Hotels.com. Both services provide a great customer experience but service is nowhere to be seen. There’s also some great proptech solutions out there, good proptech enhances your customer journey but – more importantly – it frees up time for your team to focus on service levels. Yes the customer experience is important but the service your team deliver is what sets you apart from the competition.
TodaysConveyancer
Know your rights before renewing your business lease agreement
South Africa - PropertyWheel
Many companies will be renewing their lease agreements for the next twelve months and for most companies, Covid-19 has had a radical impact on their space requirements.
Jamie Louw, the Financial Director of FM Solutions, says this is the ideal time for tenants to reconsider their existing lease agreement.
“With the decline in space demand, many landlords have recently begun diversifying to retain as much market share as possible within their tenant base. It has become a growing trend for landlords to offer fully inclusive lease agreements that incorporate maintenance and repairs. While it may look like an ideal situation, it is not always advisable nor necessarily in the best interest of the lessee to contract on this basis as tenants are left with minimal influence – particularly when they do not have the in-house expertise to manage equipment guarantees, quality of work and legislative compliance” he advises. Louw offers the following practical factors that should be considered when negotiating a lease agreement:
PropertyWheel
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