Boardroom Talk – Lawyers don’t get it: Even if Markus does win, he’s already lost.

This week, Markus Jooste's lawyer, Francois van Zyl SC, presented his client's defence to the Financial Services Tribunal. It is primarily that the Steinhoff kingpin knew nothing about the fraud. This means to find him guilty, the onus on prosecutors shifts from showing there was fraud to proving Jooste knew it was happening. 

We approached the learned advocate yesterday, requesting an interview. Van Zyl responded with: "I never discuss my clients' pending matters with the media." It's a strategy that's presumably served him well in a long career – he was admitted as an advocate in 1972, and for almost 23 years, he has practised as a senior counsel. 

But like so many good things, an approach like this works only until it doesn't. We live in an information age where the Internet has turned the instantaneous Court of Public Opinion into a far more influential vehicle than the slow-grinding Court of Law. As elsewhere, a solid case can be argued that when circumstances change, so should strategy. 

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