Namibia’s oldest law firm closes

AN era in the legal history of Namibia ended yesterday, when the country’s oldest law firm, Lorentz & Bone, closed its doors for the last time.

Infighting among the partners in the firm has ended the existence of Lorentz & Bone after more than 86 years. The firm, which was started on November 1 1919, has been dissolved with effect from the end of yesterday.The firm “fell victim to an unfortunate turn of events”, the senior partner in Lorentz & Bone, Claus Hinrichsen, comments in a statement that he has released on the dissolution of the firm.Hinrichsen, a seasoned divorce lawyer, compared the dissolution of the firm to “acrimonious divorce proceedings with no prospects of reconciliation”.He stated: “In the course of August last year, five of the then 11 partners of L & B notified the remaining partners of their decision to terminate and withdraw from the partnership.When the first resigning partners then adopted a position with regard to what they thought the remaining partners should pay them as their share in the capital of the firm, it was clear that a serious dispute had arisen.In order to avoid or at least limit the likelihood of being drawn into costly and disruptive litigation, the remaining partners then decided not to continue with the partnership of Lorentz & Bone after February 28 2006.This effectively signalled the end of Lorentz & Bone.”DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS While the old firm’s name will be consigned to history with this move, part of it may still live on.Hinrichsen and most of the other last partners in the firm plan to form a new partnership under the name of Lorentz Angula Inc.from today.Among the partners in Lorentz & Bone who will join Hinrichsen – a past Acting Judge of the High Court of Namibia – in the new firm are Hosea Angula, also a past Acting Judge of the High Court, Hartmut Ruppel, who was the first Attorney General of Namibia after Independence, Ndjavera Angula, who is the current President of the Law Society of Namibia, Wolf Wohlers and Mike Boettger.Senior Counsel John Kirkpatrick – a veteran lawyer who started his legal career with Lorentz & Bone in 1947, and also a past Acting Judge of the High Court – is also set to join the new firm as a senior consultant, according to a statement that Hosea Angula released last week.Two of the other former partners in Lorentz & Bone, Carel van der Merwe and Marinda Coleman, will be setting up a new partnership, while another two partners, Hanno Bossau and Frank Koepplinger, will establish their own legal practices while Elmarie Visser will join another firm, Bossau told The Namibian on Friday.LONG HISTORY According to a history of Lorentz & Bone that Kirkpatrick wrote about five years ago, the two co-founders of the firm, Dr Theodoor Lorentz, who was of Dutch origin, and Edgar Bone, who was born in Wales, both served as Military Magistrates of Windhoek after South Africa took over control of the then German colony in July 1915.On November 1 1919, Lorentz and Bone became partners in a new law firm which they launched under their surnames.Lorentz was still a partner in the firm when he died in 1930, leaving Bone as the only remaining original partner in the firm.Bone remained a partner until he retired in 1950.In his history of the firm, Kirkpatrick singled out a marathon, high-stakes civil case dating back to 1957 as among the most important matters the firm had been involved with in its lifetime.This was a case in which Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa – the predecessor of Namdeb – sued the Administrator of South West Africa and another company over mining rights that were granted to the other firm between the high- and low-water marks along the stretch of Namibia’s coast where CDM also owned mining rights.The case turned out to be the longest-running civil case to have been heard in the High Court until that time, and proved to be one of the leading decisions on the interpretation of laws in South African law, according to Kirkpatrick.The win that CDM scored in that battle ensured the company’s financial fortunes by confirming that the company would continue to have access to some of the richest parts of the rich diamond fields along Namibia’s coast.POLITICAL CASES As the struggle for Namibia’s Independence continued intensifying in the 1970s, Lorentz & Bone also started becoming involved in a succession of politically flavoured cases, in the process staking its place in the country’s political history.Senior Counsel Dave Smuts, who was a partner in Lorentz & Bone during the 1980s, recalled on Friday that the firm had been involved in a variety of cases that included representing people who were prosecuted under the then Terrorism Act.The firm also handled several cases in which the detention without trial of literally hundreds of people was challenged and in which the authorities then in power were taken to task for the disappearance of people and killings that were carried out by the South African security forces in Namibia, Smuts related.One of those cases, he added, was over the killing of Immanuel Shifidi at a Swapo meeting in Katutura on November 30 1986 – one of the most notorious killings during the time that the struggle for Namibia’s Independence continued heating up in that decade.In the aftermath of Shifidi’s death, the firm was also the instructing attorneys in a case in which Shifidi’s daughter successfully attacked a decision from the South African State President to stop the prosecution of her father’s alleged killers.At the time, Lorentz & Bone was the only firm taking on that sort of work in such volumes, Smuts recounted.But like all those cases, Lorentz & Bone also started fading away into history yesterday.The firm, which was started on November 1 1919, has been dissolved with effect from the end of yesterday.The firm “fell victim to an unfortunate turn of events”, the senior partner in Lorentz & Bone, Claus Hinrichsen, comments in a statement that he has released on the dissolution of the firm.Hinrichsen, a seasoned divorce lawyer, compared the dissolution of the firm to “acrimonious divorce proceedings with no prospects of reconciliation”.He stated: “In the course of August last year, five of the then 11 partners of L & B notified the remaining partners of their decision to terminate and withdraw from the partnership.When the first resigning partners then adopted a position with regard to what they thought the remaining partners should pay them as their share in the capital of the firm, it was clear that a serious dispute had arisen.In order to avoid or at least limit the likelihood of being drawn into costly and disruptive litigation, the remaining partners then decided not to continue with the partnership of Lorentz & Bone after February 28 2006.This effectively signalled the end of Lorentz & Bone.”DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS While the old firm’s name will be consigned to history with this move, part of it may still live on.Hinrichsen and most of the other last partners in the firm plan to form a new partnership under the name of Lorentz Angula Inc.from today.Among the partners in Lorentz & Bone who will join Hinrichsen – a past Acting Judge of the High Court of Namibia – in the new firm are Hosea Angula, also a past Acting Judge of the High Court, Hartmut Ruppel, who was the first Attorney General of Namibia after Independence, Ndjavera Angula, who is the current President of the Law Society of Namibia, Wolf Wohlers and Mike Boettger.Senior Counsel John Kirkpatrick – a veteran lawyer who started his legal career with Lorentz & Bone in 1947, and also a past Acting Judge of the High Court – is also set to join the new firm as a senior consultant, according to a statement that Hosea Angula released last week.Two of the other former partners in Lorentz & Bone, Carel van der Merwe and Marinda Coleman, will be setting up a new partnership, while another two partners, Hanno Bossau and Frank Koepplinger, will establish their own legal practices while Elmarie Visser will join another firm, Bossau told The Namibian on Friday.LONG HISTORY According to a history of Lorentz & Bone that Kirkpatrick wrote about five years ago, the two co-founders of the firm, Dr Theodoor Lorentz, who was of Dutch origin, and Edgar Bone, who was born in Wales, both served as Military Magistrates of Windhoek after South Africa took over control of the then German colony in July 1915.On November 1 1919, Lorentz and Bone became partners in a new law firm which they launched under their surnames.Lorentz was still a partner in the firm when he died in 1930, leaving Bone as the only remaining original partner in the firm.Bone remained a partner until he retired in 1950.In his history of the firm, Kirkpatrick singled out a marathon, high-stakes civil case dating back to 1957 as among the most important matters the firm had been involved with in its lifetime.This was a case in which Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa – the predecessor of Namdeb – sued the Administrator of South West Africa and another company over mining rights that were granted to the other firm between the high- and low-water marks along the stretch of Namibia’s coast where CDM also owned mining rights.The case turned out to be the longest-running civil case to have been heard in the High Court until that time, and proved to be one of the leading decisions on the interpretation of laws in South African law, according to Kirkpatrick.The win that CDM scored in that battle ensured the company’s financial fortunes by confirming that the company would continue to have access to some of the richest parts of the rich diamond fields along Namibia’s coast.POLITICAL CASES As the struggle for Namibia’s Independence continued intensifying in the 1970s, Lorentz & Bone also started becoming involved in a succession of politically flavoured cases, in the process staking its place in the country’s political history.Senior Counsel Dave Smuts, who was a partner in Lorentz & Bone during the 1980s, recalled on Friday that the firm had been involved in a variety of cases that included representing people who were prosecuted under the then Terrorism Act.The firm also handled several cases in which the detention without trial of literally hundreds of people was challenged and in which the authorities then in power were taken to task for the disappearance of people and killings that were carried out by the South African security forces in Namibia, Smuts related.One of those cases, he added, was over the killing of Immanuel Shifidi at a Swapo meeting in Katutura on November 30 1986 – one of the most notorious killings during the time that the struggle for Namibia’s Independence continued heating up in that decade.In the aftermath of Shifidi’s death, the firm was also the instructing attorneys in a case in which Shifidi’s daughter successfully attacked a decision from the South African State President to stop the prosecution of her father’s alleged killers.At the time, Lorentz & Bone was the only firm taking on that sort of work in such volumes, Smuts recounted.But like all those cases, Lorentz & Bone also started fading away into history yesterday.