South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts16—Issue of practising certificate
(1) Where a
legal practitioner who has been admitted and enrolled as a barrister and
solicitor of the Supreme Court (not being a legal practitioner who has been
suspended from practice) applies to the Supreme Court for a practising
certificate, the Court will, subject to this Act, issue a
practising certificate in the practitioner's name.
(2) Where a company
applies to the Supreme Court for a practising certificate, and satisfies the
Court—
(a) that
the memorandum and articles of association of the company contain stipulations
to the following effect:
(i)
the sole object of the company must be to
practise the profession of the law; and
(ii)
the director of the company (or, if there is more than
one director, each of them) must be a natural person who is a
legal practitioner holding a current practising certificate (but if the
company only has two directors they may consist of a legal practitioner
holding a current practising certificate and a person who is not a
legal practitioner holding a current practising certificate but is a
prescribed relative of that practitioner); and
(iii)
no share issued by the company, and no right to
participate in the distribution of the profits of the company, is to be owned
beneficially otherwise than by a legal practitioner who is a director or
employee of the company, or a prescribed relative of such a
legal practitioner; and
(iv)
the total voting rights exercisable at a meeting of the
members of the company must be held by legal practitioners who are directors
or employees of the company; and
(v)
no director of the company may, without the approval of
the Supreme Court, be a director of any other company that holds a
practising certificate; and
(vi)
the shares of a legal practitioner and of the
practitioner's prescribed relatives must, on the legal practitioner ceasing to
be a director or employee of the company, be redeemed by the company,
distributed amongst the remaining members of the company, or transferred to a
legal practitioner who is to become a director or employee of the company, in
accordance with the memorandum and articles of association of the company; and
(vii)
the shares of a person who is a shareholder by virtue of
being the spouse or domestic partner of a legal practitioner must—
(A) on dissolution or annulment of marriage
with the legal practitioner; or
(B) in the case of a
domestic partner—on cessation of that relationship with the
legal practitioner,
be redeemed by the company, or distributed amongst the remaining members of
the company, in accordance with the memorandum and articles of association of
the company; and
(b) that
the memorandum and articles of association are otherwise appropriate to a
company formed for the purpose of practising the profession of the law,
the Court may issue a practising certificate in the name of the company.
(3) Where a company
holds a practising certificate and the stipulations contained in the
memorandum and articles of association are, in any respect, not complied with,
the company must, within 14 days, report the non-compliance to the Supreme
Court, and the Court may give such directions (if any) as may be necessary to
secure compliance with those stipulations.
(4) If a direction of
the Supreme Court under subsection (3) is not complied with within the
time allowed by the Court, the practising certificate of the company is, by
virtue of this subsection, suspended during the period of non-compliance.
(5) An application for
a practising certificate must be accompanied by the prescribed fee and levy.
(6) In this
section—
"prescribed relative" in relation to a legal practitioner means a parent,
brother, sister, spouse, domestic partner, child or grandchild of the
legal practitioner.