The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has backed the process and legality behind the recent presidential conferment of the honour of Senior Counsel (SC) on 12 legal practitioners, including two posthumous recognitions.
This week, President Lazarus Chakwera conferred 12 lawyers with the title of SC following recommendations made by MLS’s Honours Committee.
The recipients include Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, Marshal Chilenga, Pempho Likongwe, Emily Makuta, Kamudoni Nyasulu, Maziko Phiri, Innocentia Ottober, Ralph Mhone and James Masumbu.
Garton Kainja and Alex Nampota have been honoured posthumously.
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In a statement, the society’s president Davis Njobvu says the society is responding to growing enquiries from its members following the State House announcement.
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“The legal fraternity had raised questions surrounding the eligibility and process used to identify recipients, particularly in light of statutory limitations under the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Act,” Njobvu says.
MLS reiterates that the recent honours were conferred based on recommendations made by a duly constituted and legally mandated Honours Committee.
“The society extends its congratulations to all the legal practitioners who have been conferred with the honour of Senior Counsel.
“They are men and women who have significantly contributed to the development of the legal profession in Malawi. We wish the living recipients success in their distinguished careers,” the statement reads.
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The statement further says the conferment is anchored in Part VII of the Act, specifically Section 52(1), which empowers the President to bestow the honour based on recommendations from the Honours Committee.
It also says the committee, established under Section 57 of the same law, comprises the Chief Justice as chairperson, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, two senior counsels nominated by the society, the MLS Chairperson and the Dean of Law from an accredited university.
MLS states that while the Chief Justice is not a member of the society, all other members of the Honours Committee are thereby reinforcing the society’s role in the process.
In August 2024, the then- MLS president wrote to the Solicitor General seeking clarity on two issues: the legal cap on the number of annual appointments and the eligibility of Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, who was alleged to have fallen short of the 15-year practice requirement at the time of his 2022 application.
Further consultations by the Honours Committee later that year established that the appointments for 2024 were inclusive of backlog applications from previous years, thereby justifying the unusually high number.
Additionally, it was confirmed that the Attorney General met the practice requirement, having already surpassed 15 years in the profession by the time of his application.
