LindsayKeller distinguished itself again this month when our managing partner, Leicester Adams, assumed his place on the bench in the Johannesburg High Court.
Our firm is extremely proud of Leicester’s appointment as High Court judge as he represents the personal integrity and values of LindsayKeller.
Leicester has been managing partner of LindsayKeller since 2006 and has led our litigation practice. He joined our firm as an associate in 1990, after he completed his articles of clerkship and worked as a professional assistant at another firm of attorneys in Johannesburg.
During his early days at LindsayKeller, Leicester practised as a litigation attorney and trial advocate in the Magistrate’s Court. He distinguished himself when handling a significant number of criminal trials in the district and regional courts and by the way in which he handled various commercial and contractual matters.
Leicester’s litigation work at LindsayKeller extended to insurance, personal injury and liability matters. He earned the right of appearance in the High Court in 1998 and acted as in-house counsel for the firm from this time, while running his own trials in the High Court from 2000.
While Leicester proved himself a strong legal contender in court, a dearly held aspiration was to become part of the judiciary at some point in his career. To complement his litigation skills, he completed the Judicial Skills Training Course for Attorneys offered by the Law Society in 2007. This course, as well as his 24 years as a litigation attorney in the High Court, paved the way for his periodically acting as judge in the Pretoria and Johannesburg High Courts from April 2015 and his nomination as judge by the Black Lawyers Association last year.
Leicester’s rising through the ranks of LindsayKeller to serve on the bench is a truly inspiring South African story as he comes from an ordinary family of eight children headed by a truck driver cum diesel mechanic father and housewife mother. He attended the Fred Norman High School in Ennerdale in the south of Johannesburg and was one of two matriculants who passed with university exemption.
We believe Leicester’s appointment is well-deserved, as he has served as an inspiration to all at LindsayKeller, through his dedication to the legal profession and development and training of associates and lawyers. He also worked hard to give school leavers not privileged enough to complete a tertiary education the chance to train as legal secretaries at our firm.
Having achieved the highest accolade that can be bestowed on any legal practitioner, Leicester is set to continue to live our business ethos: “The appointment to the bench affords one an opportunity to serve our country and civil society in the most noble of ways. It is a calling to which I strive: being of service to the people of South Africa,” he says proudly.